/ News
Nerve Cells Grown In Lab Link Up Best When Arranged In Triangles: Study
Korean researchers have grown simple networks of nerve cells that could pave the way for a better model to test drugs, study the physiological roots of memory and help regenerate nerves in injured patients.
The team found that they could grow neurons in several shapes, including stars and squares. But triangles proved to be the most effective shape for encouraging the ends of the nerves, the axons, to grow, the scientists said in a studypublished on Friday in the Journal of Neural Engineering.
Co-author Yoonkey Nam said in a statement Friday that the motivation for the study was "to know if we can design a neural tissue model that biologically mimics some neural circuits in our brain."
Neurons transmit electrical signals to each other through their axons, the tail-like structures that are the telegraph wires of the nervous system. When nerves grow, the axons seek other nerves by honing in on chemical signals.
Researchers in the current study attempted to recreate this natural process by positioning neurons taken from rats in differently shaped arrays on a glass surface. Each array was about one centimeter square.
"Based on our results, we are suggesting a new design principle for guiding axons in a dish," Nam says. "We can control the axonal growth in a certain direction by putting a sharp triangle pointing to a certain direction."
Nam and his colleague Min Jee Jang think that their model of shapes on a glass plate could be integrated into tissue scaffolds in order to help regenerate nerves in certain situations, like in spinal cord injury patients.
Growing nerves in a dish has already proven to be a powerful tool in investigating mental illness.
In 2011, a group of researchers published a paper in Nature describing how they transformed skin cells donated by schizophrenia patients into nerve cells by reprogramming them to become undifferentiated stem cells, then coaxed them to form neurons.
They found that the neurons from the patients didn't have as many interconnections as healthy neurons, and that various antipsychotic drugs seemed to increase the number of neuronal connections.
But growing nerves isn't necessarily a magic key to unlocking the brain's secrets. Cardiff University researcher Michael Owen cautioned against drawing the simple conclusion that differences in neurons are the root cause of schizophrenia in an interview with Nature News, and McLean Hospital stem cell scientist Kwang-Soo Kim said the differences the researchers found could be from the process of reprogramming the cells, not innate differences in the nerves of mentally ill people.
Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/365423/20120720/nerve-neuron-triangles-growth-axon.htm
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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