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Feb 21, 2017
Rhythmic brain circuits built from stem cells
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, media & arts, neuroscience
Why not as we will see we will indeed require cell circuited technology for QBS to be full effective/ enhanced.
The TV commercial is nearly 20 years old but I remember it vividly: a couple is driving down a street when they suddenly realize the music on their tape deck is in sync with the repetitive activity on the street. From the guy casually dribbling a basketball to people walking along the sidewalk to the delivery people passing packages out of their truck, everything and everyone is moving rhythmically to the beat.
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Feb 21, 2017
DNA Computer Can Sense Multiple Antibody Inputs, With Potential for Smart Drug Delivery
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, computing
Researchers at the University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands have developed a DNA computer that can respond to the presence of specific antibodies and make calculations, with the potential for intelligent drug delivery in the future. DNA computing involves using DNA molecules and other molecular biological components as molecular circuitry, instead of traditional silicon-based circuitry in computer devices. The DNA sequence dictates which other DNA molecules a DNA strand can interact with, allowing researchers to program DNA circuitry.
Scientists have been trying to use DNA computing as a method to detect biomarkers of disease in the body. Using this technique, a DNA computer could make calculations and perform a specific function, such as release a drug or activate an enzyme, in response to biological stimuli such as disease biomarkers.
So far, the inputs of DNA computers have been other DNA or RNA molecules, which has limited their usefulness as diagnostic or therapeutic systems. However, in this study, published in Nature Communications, scientists have developed a DNA computer that can respond to multiple antibody inputs and perform calculations to formulate an appropriate response. Antibodies are biomarkers in a variety of diseases, meaning that the new system has significant potential as an intelligent drug delivery system. The system translates the presence of an antibody into a DNA strand, that can then interact with other DNA strands in the molecular circuitry in calculating the appropriate response.
Feb 21, 2017
Study offers novel principle to reroute neurons for brain repair
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, life extension, neuroscience
Restorative neuroscience, the study to identify means to replace damaged neurons and recover permanently lost mental or physical abilities, is a rapidly advancing scientific field considering our progressively aging society. Redirecting immature neurons that reside in specific brain areas towards the sites of brain damage is an appealing strategy for the therapy of acute brain injury or stroke. A collaborative effort between the Center for Brain Research of Medical University of Vienna and the National Brain Research Program of Hungary/Semmelweis University in Budapest revealed that some mature neurons are able to reconfigure their local microenvironment such that it becomes conducive for adult-born immature neurons to extensively migrate. Thus, a molecular principle emerges that can allow researchers to best mobilize resident cellular reserves in the adult brain and guide immature neurons to the sites of brain damage.
The adult brain has limited capacity of self-repair.
In the aging Western society, acute brain damage and chronic neurodegenerative conditions (e.g. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases) are amongst the most debilitating diseases affecting hundreds of millions of people world-wide. Nerve cells are particularly sensitive to microenvironmental insults and their loss clearly manifests as neurological deficit. Since the innate ability of the adult human brain to regenerate is very poor and confined to its few specialized regions, a key question in present-day neurobiology is how to establish efficient strategies that can replace lost neurons, guide competent cells to the sites of injury and facilitate their functional integration to regain lost functionality. “Cell replacement therapy” thus offers frontline opportunities to design potent therapeutic interventions.
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Feb 21, 2017
One-Step Optogenetics for Hacking the Nervous System
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biotech/medical, genetics
This is one breakthrough we need badly to help finally solve Dystonia, and other Central Nervous System disorders and diseases.
Researchers squeeze a three-step optogenetics process into one nifty probe and demonstrate it in mice.
Feb 21, 2017
Researchers Validate Bipolar Candidate Gene In Mice
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: neuroscience
Researchers have shown that mice without the gene for PLCγ1 in their forebrains exhibit manic-like behaviors.
ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite has detected the most ultra x-ray bright and most distant pulsar yet known.
Feb 21, 2017
Proposed test would offer strongest evidence yet that the quantum state is real
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: information science, quantum physics
(Phys.org)—Physicists are getting a little bit closer to answering one of the oldest and most basic questions of quantum theory: does the quantum state represent reality or just our knowledge of reality?
George C. Knee, a theoretical physicist at the University of Oxford and the University of Warwick, has created an algorithm for designing optimal experiments that could provide the strongest evidence yet that the quantum state is an ontic state (a state of reality) and not an epistemic state (a state of knowledge). Knee has published a paper on the new strategy in a recent issue of the New Journal of Physics.
While physicists have debated about the nature of the quantum state since the early days of quantum theory (with, most famously, Bohr being in favor of the ontic interpretation and Einstein arguing for the epistemic one), most modern evidence has supported the view that the quantum state does indeed represent reality.
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Feb 21, 2017
Quantum matter — shaken, but not stirred
Posted by Karen Hurst in category: quantum physics
A team of researchers led by physics professor Immanuel Bloch has experimentally realized an exotic quantum system which is robust to mixing by periodic forces (Nature Physics, “Periodically driving a many-body localized quantum system”).
When James Bond asks the barkeeper for a Martini (“shaken, not stirred”), he takes it for granted that the ingredients of the drink are miscible. If he were to place the order in a bar in the quantum realm, however, Agent 007 might be in for a surprise!
Feb 21, 2017
NI Science Festival
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: biological, computing, food, neuroscience, quantum physics, science, space
Combines, space, poetry, optics, stories, TV, cognitive computing, atomic food safety, astrophysics and quantum biology in a fun-packed programme for everyone.