/ News

14.08.2014

3D silk doughnut opens window on brain injury

Yum, yum... not. Believe it or not, the latest tool to explore the brain is a silk doughnut.

Researchers have several lifelike 3D models of the brain at their fingertips, but they mimic the brain's dense and tangled structure so well that it is difficult to work out how individual cells are performing. David Kaplan at Tufts University in Massachusetts, who develops biomaterials made of silk proteins, wondered if his silk structures could provide a scaffold to build an easier-to-study neural network.

With his team, he fashioned a series of doughnut-shaped silk scaffolds that slot together concentrically to mimic the layered structure of the brain. They seeded these with rat neurons and dunked them in collagen to encourage the cells to grow.

The neurons formed 3D networks that behaved a lot like a real brain, despite the structure and order imposed by the silk scaffold. "The scaffold makes it easier to probe different regions and functions in the tissue," says Kaplan.

Juergen Knoblich at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, who last year grew tiny human "brains" in the lab, says the work is another step towards understanding the function of neural networks.

 This includes understanding how the networks function when they are damaged. Kaplan and his colleagues have experimented with dropping 11 gram weights onto their silk brain models and recording the response. They found that neurons in the silk brain entered a 2-minute-long period of hyperactivity after the injury. EEG readings from animals with brain injuries show similar patterns of neuronal hyperactivity, suggesting the silk brain model could help us understand exactly how traumatic brain injuries affect neurons and neural networks.

"Since the 3D brain system responds with markers one would expect, we have a start on how to use the system to study the nature of the damage and the best modes of treatment," says Kaplan.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26052-3d-silk-doughnut-opens-window-on-brain-injury.html#.U-xI1qMWHFw




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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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