Bioelectronics research and development of implants made of electrically conductive materials for disease treatment is advancing rapidly. However, bioelectronic treatment is not without complications. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have taken another step forward by developing a refined method to create detailed and tissue-friendly bioelectronics.

In a study published in Advanced Science, the researchers describe how they can use light to create electrically conductive materials directly in the body, showing promising results in animal trials.

Bioelectronics is successfully used for treating heart arrhythmia, epilepsy, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, to name a few. However, it’s well known that today’s bioelectrodes and implantation methods require the tissue to adapt to the electrodes, rather than the other way around. This can lead to complications.

Junk DNA could unlock new treatments for neurological disorders as scientists discover its breaks and repairs affect our protection against neurological disease.

The research from the University of Sheffield’s Neuroscience Institute and Healthy Lifespan Institute gives important new insights into so-called junk DNA and how it impacts on neurological disorders such as Motor Neuron Disease (MND) and Alzheimer’s.

Until now, the repair of junk DNA, which makes up 98% of DNA, has been largely overlooked by scientists, but the new study published in Nature found it is much more vulnerable to breaks from oxidative genomic damage than previously thought. This has vital implications on the development of neurological disorders.

While it’s well known that sleep enhances cognitive performance, the underlying neural mechanisms, particularly those related to nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, remain largely unexplored. A new study by a team of researchers at Rice University and Houston Methodist’s Center for Neural Systems Restoration and Weill Cornell Medical College, coordinated by Rice’s Valentin Dragoi, has nonetheless uncovered a key mechanism by which sleep enhances neuronal and behavioral performance, potentially changing our fundamental understanding of how sleep boosts brainpower.

The research, published in Science, reveals how NREM sleep—the lighter sleep one experiences when taking a nap, for example—fosters brain synchronization and enhances information encoding, shedding new light on this sleep stage. The researchers replicated these effects through invasive stimulation, suggesting promising possibilities for future neuromodulation therapies in humans. The implications of this discovery potentially pave the way for innovative treatments for sleep disorders and even methods to enhance cognitive and behavioral performance.

The investigation involved an examination of the neural activity in multiple brain areas in macaques while the animals performed a visual discrimination task before and after a 30-minute period of NREM sleep. Using multielectrode arrays, the researchers recorded the activity of thousands of neurons across three brain areas: the primary and midlevel visual cortices and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which are associated with visual processing and executive functions. To confirm that the macaques were in NREM sleep, researchers used polysomnography to monitor their brain and muscle activity alongside video analysis to ensure their eyes were closed and their bodies relaxed.