Lifeboat Foundation

When people suffer spinal cord injuries and lose mobility in their limbs, it’s a neural signal processing problem. The brain can still send clear electrical impulses and the limbs can still receive them, but the signal gets lost in the damaged spinal cord.

The Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE)—a collaboration of San Diego State University with the University of Washington (UW) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)—is working on an implantable brain chip that can record neural electrical signals and transmit them to receivers in the limb, bypassing the damage and restoring movement. Recently, these researchers described in a study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports a critical improvement to the technology that could make it more durable, last longer in the body and transmit clearer, stronger signals.

The technology, known as a brain-computer interface, records and transmits signals through electrodes, which are tiny pieces of material that read signals from brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters. By recording brain signals at the moment a person intends to make some movement, the interface learns the relevant electrical signal pattern and can transmit that pattern to the limb’s nerves, or even to a prosthetic limb, restoring mobility and motor function.

A team from Korea created more flexible neural electrodes that minimize tissue damage and still transmit clear brain signals.

Electrodes placed in the brain record neural activity, and can help treat neural diseases like Parkinson’s and epilepsy. Interest is also growing in developing better brain-machine interfaces, in which electrodes can help control prosthetic limbs. Progress in these fields is hindered by limitations in electrodes, which are relatively stiff and can damage soft brain tissue.

Designing smaller, gentler electrodes that still pick up brain signals is a challenge because brain signals are so weak. Typically, the smaller the electrode, the harder it is to detect a signal. However, a team from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology in Korea developed new probes that are small, flexible and read brain signals clearly.

Induced pluripotent stem cells offer great therapeutic potential and are a valuable tool for understanding how different diseases develop. New research shows that such stem cell lines should be regularly screened for genetic mutations to ensure the accuracy of the disease models.

In the past 10 years, scientists have learned to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from ordinary cells by genetic reprogramming. These cells are widely used to study diseases, as they can be differentiated to almost any cell type of the body, and they can be generated from any individual. However, a key remaining methodological challenge is that the differentiation process is subject to major technical variation for mostly unknown reasons.

HiLIFE Tenure Track Professor Helena Kilpinen and her group at the University of Helsinki use stem cells for studying the biological mechanisms of neurodevelopmental and other brain-related diseases.

Could an injection of lab-cultured brain cells, created from a person’s own cells, reverse symptoms of Parkinson’s disease? That’s an idea that Aspen Neuroscience Inc., a startup based in San Diego, plans to test in human trials later this year.

In patients with Parkinson’s, neurons die and lose the ability to make the chemical dopamine, leading to erratic, uncontrollable movements. Aspen Neuroscience will test if the newly injected cells can mature into dopamine producers, stopping the debilitating symptoms of this incurable disease, says Damien McDevitt, the company’s chief executive officer. Tests in animals have shown promise, the company says.

Finding early signs of dementia in the back of the eye may be a way to catch the disease early and start preventive treatment, a study says.

Michael Levin is a biologist at Tufts University working on novel ways to understand and control complex pattern formation in biological systems.

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Summary: Researchers have developed a new 3D, high-resolution model of the CA1 area of the human hippocampus.

Source: Human Brain Project.

A new high-resolution model of the CA1 region of the human hippocampus has been developed by the Institute of Biophysics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IBF) and University of Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), part of the Human Brain Project.

Hailey-Hailey disease is a rare, inherited condition characterized by patches of blisters appearing mainly in the skin folds of the arm pits, groin and under the breasts. It is caused by a mutation in the gene that codes for a specific protein involved in the transportation of calcium and manganese ions from the cell cytoplasm and into a sac-like organelle called the Golgi apparatus.

Scientists at Tohoku University, together with colleagues in Japan, have uncovered some aspects of this protein’s structure that could help researchers understand how it works. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, help build the foundations for research into finding treatments for Hailey-Hailey disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The protein the team studied is called secretory pathway Ca²⁺/Mn²⁺-ATPase, or SPCA for short. It is located in the Golgi apparatus, a cellular sac-like structure that plays a crucial role in protein quality control before they are released into cells. The Golgi apparatus also acts like a sort of calcium ion storage container. Calcium ions are vital for cell signaling processes and are important for proteins to function properly, so maintaining the right calcium ion balance inside cells is necessary for their day-to-day activities.

Harvard Medical School professor Michael E. Greenberg has won The 2023 Brain Prize for his decades-long research on brain plasticity, alongside University of Cambridge professor Christine E. Holt and Max Planck Institute Director Erin M. Schuman.