Bioscience News - GEG Tech top picks

Miniature human-brain-like structures transplanted into rats can send signals and respond to environmental cues. Researchers grew the structures from human stem cells and then injected them into the brains of newborn rat pups. After six months, the organoids became fully integrated into the rat brains. The approach could lead to a way to test therapies for human brain disorders. But some researchers have ethical concerns about such experiments: creating rodent–human hybrids could harm the animals or produce animals with human-like brains

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown, in mice, that one type of stem cell that makes adult neurons is the source of this lifetime stock of new cells in the hippocampus.

Combination immunotherapy with nivolumab and ipilimumab provided intracranial and extracranial responses for patients with melanoma and brain metastases, according to data from CheckMate 204 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02320058) presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago

Breakthrough technology has allowed quadriplegic Bill Kochevar to move this arms thanks to brain-recording and muscle-stimulating implants.

3D reconstructions show a 'crown of thorns' shape stemming from a region linked to consciousness.

In a cross-domain study directed by professor Peter Carmeliet (VIB – KU Leuven), researchers discovered unexpected cells in the protective membranes that enclose the brain, the so called meninges. These ‘neural progenitors’ – or stem cells that differentiate into different kinds of neurons – are produced during embryonic development.

Using VR technology, an exoskeleton and software, study claims participants have unexpectedly experienced partial recovery of movement and sensation

A new map of the human brain could be the most accurate yet, as it combines all sorts of different kinds of data. This might finally solve a century of disagreements over the shapes and positions of different brain areas.

EPFL scientists propose a new way of understanding how the brain processes unconscious information into our consciousness. According to the model, consciousness arises only in time intervals of up to 400 milliseconds, with gaps of unconsciousness in between.

Synchron Inc., which develops a so-called brain-computer interface and competes with Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp., enrolled the first patient in its U.S. clinical trial, putting the company’s implant on a path toward possible regulatory approval for wider use in people with paralysis.

In  a step that could change the definition of death, researchers have restored circulation to the brains of decapitated pigs and kept the reanimated organs alive for as long as 36 hours.

Elon Musk's NeuraLink is developing a 'whole brain interface,' essentially a network of tiny electrodes linked to your brain that the company envisions will allow us to communicate wirelessly with the world.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is backing a brain-computer interface venture called Neuralink, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company, which is still in the earliest stages of existence and has no public presence whatsoever, is centered on creating devices that can be implanted in the human brain, with the eventual purpose of helping human beings merge with software and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence. These enhancements could improve memory or allow for more direct interfacing with computing devices.

Ed Boyden once penned a short practical essay titled “How To Think,” and the passage above was his #1 rule. He was 28 years old and launching his own neuroscience research group at MIT. He’d already published findings that would win him the prestigious Brain Prize for helping to develop “arguably the most important technical advance in neuroscience in the past 40 years,” according to the chairman of the prize selection committee. 

Researchers found nicotine receptors in the brain may prove to be a useful target for medication to prevent the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers at CNRS, INSERM, Aix-Marseille University and AP-HM have just created a virtual brain that can reconstitute the brain of a person affected by epilepsy for the first time. From this work we understand better how the disease works and can also better prepare for surgery. These results are published in Neuroimage, on July 28, 2016.

Where exactly are the words in your head? Scientists have created an interactive map showing which brain areas respond to hearing different words. The map reveals how language is spread throughout the cortex and across both hemispheres, showing groups of words clustered together by meaning. The beautiful interactive model allows us to explore the complex organisation of the enormous dictionaries in our heads.

Researchers from Imperial College London, working with the Beckley Foundation, have for the first time visualised the effects of LSD on the human brain. In a series of experiments, scientists have gained a glimpse into how the psychedelic compound affects brain activity. The team administered LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) to 20 healthy volunteers in a specialist research centre and used various leading-edge and complementary brain scanning techniques to visualise how LSD alters the way the brain works.