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    Category Health/Medical

    HIV Eliminated from the Genomes of Living Animals

    July 5, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    A working model for HIV-1 elimination. A cartoon illustration of the viral elimination strategy is shown for single LASER ART, AAV9-CRISPR-Cas9 injection groups and dual treatment groups. We highlight the observed restriction of viral infection by LASER ART and an inability to achieve elimination of virus by AAV9-CRISPR-Cas9 treatment alone. However, the sequential administration of LASER ART and AAV9-CRISPR-Cas9 can achieve viral elimination in a subset of animals. Why specific animals are cured of infection while others are not is incompletely understood but tied, in measure, to viral set points

    Researchers have for the first time eliminated replication-competent HIV-1 DNA – the virus responsible for AIDS – from the genomes of living animals...

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    Researchers grow Active Mini-Brain-Networks

    July 4, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Self-Organized Neural Network Formation by Dissociation of Cerebral Organoids

    Cerebral organoids are artificially grown, 3D tissue cultures that resemble the human brain. Now, researchers from Japan report functional neural networks derived from these organoids in a study publishing June 27 in the journal Stem Cell Reports. Although the organoids aren’t actually “thinking,” the researchers’ new tool – which detects neural activity using organoids – could provide a method for understanding human brain function.

    “Because they can mimic cerebral development, cerebral organoids can be used as a substitute for the human brain to study complex developmental and neurological disorders,” says corresponding author Jun Takahashi, a professor at Kyoto University.

    However, these studies ar...

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    Smart Glasses follow our Eyes, Focus Automatically

    July 2, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

     Front and side views of our autofocal prototype.The RealSense R200 depth camera, the Optotune EL-30-45 focus-tunable lenses, the offset lens holders for prescription correction, and the Pupil Labs eye trackers are shown. (Photo credit: Nitish Padmanaban, Stanford).

    By using eye-tracking technology to automatically control a pair of autofocus lenses, engineers have created a prototype for ‘autofocals’ designed to restore proper vision in people who would ordinarily need progressive lenses.

    Though it may not have the sting of death and taxes, presbyopia is another of life’s guarantees. This vision defect plagues most of us starting about age 45, as the lenses in our eyes lose the elasticity needed to focus on nearby objects...

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    Low-cost Retinal Scanner could help prevent Blindness Worldwide

    July 2, 2019, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Small box with a screen and a boxy gun for scanning retinas
    This OCT system designed at Duke University is 15 times lighter and smaller than current commercial systems and is made from parts costing less than a tenth the retail price of commercial systems.

    Re-engineered device offers clinically accurate eye scans at a fraction of the cost. Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a low-cost, portable optical coherence tomography (OCT) scanner that promises to bring the vision-saving technology to underserved regions throughout the United States and abroad.

    Thanks to a redesigned, 3D-printed spectrometer, the scanner is 15 times lighter and smaller than current commercial systems and is made from parts costing less than a tenth the retail price of commercial systems – all without sacrificing imaging quality.

    In its first cl...

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