Category Health/Medical

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers Heather Enright (left) and Anna Belle hold the brain-on-a-chip device and a microelectrode array. Credit: Image courtesy of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers have developed a “brain-on-a-chip” device aimed at testing and predicting the effects of biological and chemical agents, disease or pharmaceutical drugs on the brain over time without the need for human or animal subjects.

The device, part of the Lab’s iCHIP (in-vitro Chip-Based Human Investigational Platform) project, simulates the central nervous system by recording neural activity from multiple brain cell types deposited and grown onto microelectrode arrays...

Skeletal muscle cells isolated using the ERBB3 and NGFR surface markers (right) restore human dystrophin (green) after transplantation significantly greater than previous methods (left). Credit: UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center/Nature Cell Bio

Discovery is major step towards a stem cell replacement therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. UCLA scientists have developed a new strategy to efficiently isolate, mature and transplant skeletal muscle cells created from human pluripotent stem cells, which can produce all cell types of the body. The findings are a major step towards developing a stem cell replacement therapy for muscle diseases including Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which affects approximately 1 in 5,000 boys in the U.S. and is the most common fatal childhood genetic disease.

A molecular dynamics model showing a nanoparticle binding to the outer envelope of the human papillomavirus. Credit: Petr Kral

Now, an international group of researchers including UIC professor of chemistry Petr Kral, have designed new anti-viral nanoparticles that bind to a range of viruses, including herpes simplex virus, human papillomavirus, respiratory syncytial virus and Dengue and Lentiviruses. Unlike other broad-spectrum antivirals, which simply prevent viruses from infecting cells, the new nanoparticles destroy viruses.

The new nanoparticles mimic a cell surface protein called heparin sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG). A significant portion of viruses, including HIV, enter and infect healthy cells by first binding to HSPGs on the cell surface...

A close-up of part of the fiber optical tweezers developed by a research team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The two fibers seen here project intersecting beams of laser light to create a three-dimensional optical trap that can hold and move individual cells. Credit: Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)

A team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has demonstrated how a device that uses beams of light to grip and manipulate tiny objects, including individual cells, can be miniaturized, opening the door to creating portable devices small enough to be inserted into the bloodstream to trap individual cancer cells and diagnose cancer in its earliest stages.

The technique, known as optical tweezers, uses optical beams of laser light to create an attractive force fi...