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Category: biotech/medical – Page 753

Bioengineers building the intersection of organoids and AI with ‘Brainoware’

Feng Guo, an associate professor of intelligent systems engineering at the Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, is addressing the technical limitations of artificial intelligence computing hardware by developing a new hybrid computing system—which has been dubbed “Brainoware”—that combines electronic hardware with human brain organoids.

Advanced AI techniques, such as and , which are powered by specialized silicon computer chips, expend enormous amounts of energy. As such, engineers have designed neuromorphic computing systems, modeled after the structure and function of a human brain, to improve the performance and efficiency of these technologies. However, these systems are still limited in their ability to fully mimic brain function, as most are built on digital electronic principles.

In response, Guo and a team of IU researchers, including graduate student Hongwei Cai, have developed a hybrid neuromorphic computing system that mounts a brain organoid onto a multielectrode assay to receive and send information. The brain organoids are brain-like 3D cell cultures derived from and characterized by different brain cell types, including neurons and glia, and brain-like structures such as ventricular zones.

Using the human as a sensor for better health

Amid a rise in the innovation of wearable technology, researchers are looking for ways to harness the adaptive sensing ability of the human body.

A recent University of Melbourne panel discussion covered the future of wearable sensors. Professor Graham Kerr, Bill Dimopoulos, Galen Gan and Professor Peter Lee considered the management of information generated from such technology and its interpretation for improving health.

Chips to Compute With Encrypted Data Are Coming

Regulatory efforts to protect data are making strides globally. Patient data is protected by law in the United States and elsewhere. In Europe the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guards personal data and recently led to a US $1.3 billion fine for Meta. You can even think of Apple’s App Store policies against data sharing as a kind of data-protection regulation.

“These are good constraints. These are constraints society wants,” says Michael Gao, founder and CEO of Fabric Cryptography, one of the startups developing FHE-accelerating chips. But privacy and confidentiality come at a cost: They can make it more difficult to track disease and do medical research, they potentially let some bad guys bank, and they can prevent the use of data needed to improve AI.

“Fully homomorphic encryption is an automated solution to get around legal and regulatory issues while still protecting privacy,” says Kurt Rohloff, CEO of Duality Technologies, in Hoboken, N.J., one of the companies developing FHE accelerator chips. His company’s FHE software is already helping financial firms check for fraud and preserving patient privacy in health care research.

Aerogel could become the key to future terahertz technologies

High-frequency terahertz waves have great potential for a number of applications including next-generation medical imaging and communication. Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, have shown, in a study published in the journal Advanced Science, that the transmission of terahertz light through an aerogel made of cellulose and a conducting polymer can be tuned. This is an important step to unlock more applications for terahertz waves.

The covers wavelengths that lie between microwaves and infrared light on the . It has a very high frequency. Thanks to this, many researchers believe that the terahertz range has great potential for use in , security technology and communication systems, among other things.

In , it can also be an interesting substitute for X-ray examinations as the waves can pass through most non-conductive materials without damaging any tissue.

A Grave Warning About Antarctica Is Encoded in Octopus DNA

Ocean bays that pinch West Antarctica are home to two distinct populations of Turquet’s octopus (Pareledone turqueti). The shared secrets of their ancestors do not bode well for the future health of our planet.

A new DNA analysis of the two geographically separated octopus populations indicates they were once part of one big family.

This direct historical connection suggests that around 125,000 years ago, the massive 2.2 million cubic kilometer (530,000 cubic mile) West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) that separates the two bays had fully collapsed into the sea.

Researchers develop first high-precision dual-color optoelectronic brain probe

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed the first dual-color optoelectronic neural probe.

Unlike previous, single probes, which often control activity in only one direction—excitation or inhibition, but not both—this new design can enhance and silence the electrical activities of the same neurons within specific cortical layers of the brain. It promises aid the investigation of tightly packed neural microcircuits within the cortex and deep brain regions and, in the longer term, add to the functional mapping of the brain.

Guangyu Xu, assistant associate professor of electrical and , an appointee of the Dev and Linda Gupta Professorship at UMass Amherst, and principal investigator of the study hopes the device can ultimately help researchers identify the origin of brain diseases.