By building synthetic bacteria that can be taken in pill form, DARPA-funded researchers seek to keep our digestive systems in fighting form.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 3,573
The Pentagon’s gamble on brain implants, bionic limbs and combat exoskeletons — Sara Reardon | Nature
“The Biological Technologies Office (BTO), which opened in April 2014, aims to support extremely ambitious — some say fantastical — technologies ranging from powered exoskeletons for soldiers to brain implants that can control mental disorders. DARPA’s plan for tackling such projects is being carried out in the same frenetic style that has defined the agency’s research in other fields.” Read more
Never Sleep Again, Using This Drug
If there was a drug that meant you never had to sleep again, would you take it? Would those who didn’t need to sleep have special advantages over those who did? All that and a side of zombies, in this week’s episode of Meanwhile in the Future.
Creating DNA-based nanostructures without water
Three different DNA nanostructures assembled at room temperature in water-free glycholine (left) and in 75 percent glycholine-water mixture (center and right). The structures are (from left to right) a tall rectangle two-dimensional DNA origami, a triangle made of single-stranded tails, and a six-helix bundle three-dimensional DNA origami (credit: Isaac Gállego).
Implant Fights Stroke, Tinnitus
Microtransponder’s vagus nerve stimulator uses precisely-timed jolts to help stroke victims relearn movements more quickly
Genetically Modifying Mosquitoes to Eliminate Disease
A remarkable scheme to alter the pest’s DNA could change the disease-carrying species for the better — or wipe them off the Earth.
World’s first biolimb … By Akshat Rathi | Quartz
The idea is simple. First, they take an arm from a dead rat and put it through a process of decellularization using detergents. This leaves behind a white scaffold. The scaffold is key because no artificial reconstructions come close to replicating the intricacies of a natural one.
Next Big Future: Conceptually Viable Brute Force Radical Life Extension
A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has made the first steps towards development of bioartificial replacement limbs suitable for transplantation They had used decellularization technique to regenerate kidneys, livers, hearts and lungs from animal models, but this is the first reported use to engineer the more complex tissues of a bioartificial limb.
They took the leg from recently deceased rat and then:
* Over a period of 52 hours, infusion of a detergent solution removes cells from a rat forelimb, leaving behind the cell-free matrix scaffolding onto which new tissues can be regenerated.
* it is put in a specially designed bioreactor and after 2 weeks it is recellularized
* they graft some skin onto the fledgling leg, and the doctors had themselves their own, home-grown rat limb (minus the bones and cartilage).
* they attached it to a rat
What if instead of taking the leg of dead rat you took the leg of an old rat and recellularized it with its own stem cells.