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Early Detection of Brain Injury with MRI
A new research advance in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) technology can safely detect molecules called free radicals, which are associated with traumatic brain injury. The technology is a step toward transforming diagnostics by making these markers visible to clinicians for the first time.
Researchers have experimented for years with detecting free radicals with MRI, but earlier efforts took too much time and required too much radio frequency energy, which led to unacceptably high levels of tissue heating.
A new higher-speed, higher-efficiency method that avoids dangerous heating is described in this paper. The method was developed by physicist Matt Rosen, a researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital/A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
So far, he has demonstrated it can detect free radicals in the brains of living rats injected with the highly reactive molecules. Because Rosen achieved the result using low-field MRI, which uses smaller magnets than classic trailer-sized MRI units, it could be used in future smaller, portable MRI systems.
After traumatic brain injury, free radicals—molecules formed during the initial injury—can damage healthy brain tissue through chemical and cellular processes that cause swelling and cell death. The swelling alone can cause further injury or even death.
Used in an emergency situation, the technology could confirm the severity of a head impact and prompt medics to administer antioxidant drugs to neutralize free radicals. The effects of any such drugs could then be observed through a second scan. It could even help doctors determine whether surgery would be advised to relieve brain swelling.
Because free radicals aren’t all bad—they also play a role in biological signaling in the brain—the technology could also enable researchers to measure what constitutes a normal mix of free radicals in the brain (or elsewhere in the body), and develop a baseline against which to detect dangerous levels.
Still, commercialization of free radical detection is likely years away. “Whether Matt will ultimately be able to visualize free radicals [produced by the body, as opposed to ones injected in rats] is of course still an open question, but I have a much greater level of optimism given his recent results,” says Bruce Rosen (no relation), a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and the director of the A.A. Martinos Center.
While the technology could have theoretical benefits for people with a range of diseases and conditions—including stroke, cancer, and dementia—that involve the release of free radicals, the implications for patients with brain injuries is significant. Traumatic brain injury is considered an epidemic in the United States; more than five million people live with disabilities resulting from brain injury.
Conventional MRI provides high-quality images of the structure of the brain and can detect bleeding or physical damage, but offers no window into the far more subtle release of free radicals. In the absence of such information, researchers are trying to use a variety of methods to detect damage on a smaller scale (see “Detecting Subtle Brain Injuries” and “Inexpensive Brain Scans Could Catch Concussions”).
Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/527521/early-detection-of-brain-injury-with-mri/
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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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