Category Health/Medical

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have fully 3D printed an image sensing array on a hemisphere, which is a first-of-its-kind prototype for a “bionic eye.”
Credit: University of Minnesota, McAlpine Group

A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota have, for the first time, fully 3D printed an array of light receptors on a hemispherical surface. This discovery marks a significant step toward creating a “bionic eye” that could someday help blind people see or sighted people see better.

The research is published today in Advanced Materials, a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering materials science. The author also holds the patent for 3D-printed semiconducting devices...

Newly discovered channels in the skull may provide a shortcut for immune cells going to damaged tissue. Credit: Nahrendorf Lab

Study suggests immune cells rush through channels to get to injured tissue quickly. Bone marrow, the spongy tissue inside most of our bones, produces red blood cells as well as immune cells that help fight off infections and heal injuries. According to a new study of mice and humans, tiny tunnels run from skull bone marrow to the lining of the brain and may provide a direct route for immune cells responding to injuries caused by stroke and other brain disorders. The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and published in Nature Neuroscience.

“We always thought that immune cells from our arms and legs traveled via blood to damaged brain tissue...

This is a digital reconstruction of a rosehip neuron in the human brain. Credit: Tamas Lab, University of Szeged

‘Rosehip’ neurons not found in rodents, may be involved in fine-level control between regions of the human brain. One of the most intriguing questions about the human brain is also one of the most difficult for neuroscientists to answer: What sets our brains apart from those of other animals? “We really don’t understand what makes the human brain special,” said Ed Lein, Ph.D., Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science. “Studying the differences at the level of cells and circuits is a good place to start, and now we have new tools to do just that.”

In a new study published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Lein and his colleagues reveal one possible answer to ...

Electron microscope image of M13 spheroid-templated spiky gold nanobead with corresponding graphical illustration. Credit: Haberer Lab, UC Riverside

Engineers at the University of California, Riverside, have altered a virus to arrange gold atoms into spheroids measuring a few nanometers in diameter. The finding could make production of some electronic components cheaper, easier, and faster. “Nature has been assembling complex, highly organized nanostructures for millennia with precision and specificity far superior to the most advanced technological approaches,” said Elaine Haberer, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in UCR’s Marlin and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering and senior author of the paper describing the breakthrough...