Category Health/Medical

Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering are using generative adversarial networks (GANs) — technology best known for creating deepfake videos and photorealistic human faces — to improve brain-computer interfaces for people with disabilities.

In a paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the team successfully taught an AI to generate synthetic brain activity data. The data, specifically neural signals called spike trains, can be fed into machine-learning algorithms to improve the usability of brain-computer interfaces (BCI).

BCI systems work by analyzing a person’s brain signals and translating that neur...

Research in mice demonstrates how diet alters a gut microbe molecule that, in turn, prompts immune cells to downregulate inflammation. The study elucidates molecular mechanism behind long-standing belief that diet, microbiota, and immunity influence one another in myriad ways. If affirmed in larger animals and humans, the findings could inform the design of small-molecule drugs that regulate immune response to treat inflammatory conditions.

The cliché “you are what you eat” has been used for hundreds of years to illustrate the link between diet and health. Now, an international team of researchers has found the molecular proof of this concept, demonstrating how diet ultimately affects immunity through the gut microbiome.

The work, conducte...

A study comparing the impact of diet versus drugs on the inner workings of our cells has found nutrition has a much stronger impact.

The pre-clinical study by the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre suggests the makeup of our diet could be more powerful than drugs in keeping conditions like diabetes, stroke and heart disease at bay.

Conducted in mice, the research showed nutrition (including overall calories and macronutrient balance) had a greater impact on ageing and metabolic health than three drugs commonly used to treat diabetes and slow down ageing.

The findings are published in Cell Metabolism.

The research builds on the team’s pioneering work in mice and humans demonstrating the protective role of diet and specific combinations of proteins, fats and carbo...