Elon Musk’s Neuralink introduced the first patient to receive its brain-computer implant, demonstrating during a livestream that he can now move a computer cursor to play chess using the device. Photo: Neuralink.
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 590
Neuralink’s Rival Tests Brain Chip in Race to Bring Implants to Market
Elon Musk’s Neuralink recently implanted a chip in a human for the first time. The emerging market of brain computer interfaces, or BCIs, is in the process of finding its footing. In a world where AI is on the rise, BCIs allow for telepathic control of computers and wireless operation of prosthetics. But how does this tech work?
WSJ goes inside a brain surgery to see how the implants work, and breaks down what it’s going to take to get these devices on the market.
Chapters:
0:00 Musk’s Neuralink.
0:41 The market.
3:03 Synchron.
3:57 Precision.
5:16 What’s next?
News Explainers.
Some days the high-speed news cycle can bring more questions than answers. WSJ’s news explainers break down the day’s biggest stories into bite-size pieces to help you make sense of the news.
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1st Neuralink patient shown using brain chip to control computer and play chess in unexpected livestream
The first person with Neuralink’s computer-linked chip implanted in the surface of their brain showed off their “telekinetic” online chess-playing skills while discussing the “life-changing” procedure for the first time in a surprise livestream.
Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old with quadriplegia (or paralysis that affects the body from the neck down), volunteered to have the device implanted as part of Neuralink’s ongoing trial of the technology. Until now, his identity had remained a closely guarded secret.
A Bacteria in the Mouth Might Speed Colon Cancers
THURSDAY, March 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) — A germ commonly found in the human mouth can travel to colon tumors and appears to speed their growth, new research shows.
The finding might lead to new insights into fighting colon cancer, which kills more than 52,000 Americans each year, according to the American Cancer Society.
Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle looked at levels of a particular oral bacterium, Fusobacterium nucleatum, in colon tumor tissues taken from 200 colon cancer patients.
From Neuronal Differentiation of iPSCs to 3D Neuro-Organoids: Modelling and Therapy of Neurodegenerative Diseases
In the last decade, the advances made into the reprogramming of somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) led to great improvements towards their use as models of diseases. In particular, in the field of neurodegenerative diseases, iPSCs technology allowed to culture in vitro all types of patient-specific neural cells, facilitating not only the investigation of diseases’ etiopathology, but also the testing of new drugs and cell therapies, leading to the innovative concept of personalized medicine. Moreover, iPSCs can be differentiated and organized into 3D organoids, providing a tool which mimics the complexity of the brain’s architecture. Furthermore, recent developments in 3D bioprinting allowed the study of physiological cell-to-cell interactions, given by a combination of several biomaterials, scaffolds, and cells.
Advantages of CRISPR-Cas9 combined organoid model in the study of congenital nervous system malformations
In the past 10 years, gene-editing and organoid culture have completely changed the process of biology. Congenital nervous system malformations are difficult to study due to their polygenic pathogenicity, the complexity of cellular and neural regions of the brain, and the dysregulation of specific neurodevelopmental processes in humans. Therefore, the combined application of CRISPR-Cas9 in organoid models may provide a technical platform for studying organ development and congenital diseases. Here, we first summarize the occurrence of congenital neurological malformations and discuss the different modeling methods of congenital nervous system malformations. After that, it focuses on using organoid to model congenital nervous system malformations. Then we summarized the application of CRISPR-Cas9 in the organoid platform to study the pathogenesis and treatment strategies of congenital nervous system malformations and finally looked forward to the future.
Keywords: organoid, CRISPR-Cas9, congenital nervous system malformation, central nervous system, 3D
Genetic Modification of Brain Organoids
Brain organoids have become increasingly used systems allowing 3D-modeling of human brain development, evolution, and disease. To be able to make full use of these modeling systems, researchers have developed a growing toolkit of genetic modification techniques. These techniques can be applied to mature brain organoids or to the preceding embryoid bodies (EBs) and founding cells. This review will describe techniques used for transient and stable genetic modification of brain organoids and discuss their current use and respective advantages and disadvantages. Transient approaches include adeno-associated virus (AAV) and electroporation-based techniques, whereas stable genetic modification approaches make use of lentivirus (including viral stamping), transposon and CRISPR/Cas9 systems. Finally, an outlook as to likely future developments and applications regarding genetic modifications of brain organoids will be presented.
The development of brain organoids (Kadoshima et al., 2013; Lancaster et al., 2013) has opened up new ways to study brain development and evolution as well as neurodevelopmental disorders. Brain organoids are multicellular 3D structures that mimic certain aspects of the cytoarchitecture and cell-type composition of certain brain regions over a particular developmental time window (Heide et al., 2018). These structures are generated by differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into embryoid bodies followed by, or combined, with neural induction (Kadoshima et al., 2013; Lancaster et al., 2013). In principle, two different classes of brain organoid protocols can be distinguished, namely: (i) the self-patterning protocols which produce whole-brain organoids; and (ii) the pre-patterning protocols which produce brain region-specific organoids (Heide et al., 2018).
Musk’s Neuralink says the first human to have a chip implanted in his brain can now play video games using his mind
The first patient of Elon Musk’s Neuralink has been presented to the public. Noland Arbaugh had all but given up playing Civilization VI ever since a diving accident dislocated two vertebrae in his cervical spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the shoulders down.
When confined to his wheel chair, the 29-year-old American is totally dependent on the care of his parents, who need to shift his weight ever few hours to avoid pressure sores from sitting too long in the same position.
Moving a cursor on a display furthermore required the use of a mouth stick, a specialized assistive device used by quadriplegics.
‘Like a Lab in your Pocket’ — new test strips raise game in gene-based diagnostics
Biosensing technology developed by engineers has made it possible to create gene test strips that rival conventional lab-based tests in quality. When the pandemic started, people who felt unwell had to join long queues for lab-based PCR tests and then wait for two days to learn if they had the COVID-19 virus or not.
In addition to significant inconvenience, a major drawback was the substantial and expensive logistics needed for such laboratory tests, while testing delays increased the risk of disease spread.
Now a team of bio]medical engineers at UNSW Sydney have developed a new technology offering test strips which are just as accurate as the lab-based detection. And according to research published today in Nature Communications, it’s not just public health that the technology may benefit.