SciTech #ScienceSunday
Digest - 36/2016.Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2016/09/nanowires-in-mouse-brain-neuronal-pixel.html Nanowires in mouse brain, Neuronal pixel interface, Custom molecular cages, Giant macrodimer molecules, Boosting neurogenesis, Antibody clears amyloid, Carbon nanotube transistors, Universal cancer investigation, Atomic deposition techniques, Centimeter accurate GPS. 1. Mouse Brains Monitored with Injectable NanowiresVery thin flexible silicon wires coated in polymer form a mesh of simple field effect transistors that can curl up, drawn into a syringe, and injected into mouse brains where they can record electrical activity from individual neurons
http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/injectable-nanowires-monitor-mouse-brains-for-months. The mesh functioned well throughout the entire 8 months of the experiment by avoiding the immune response and scar tissue formation that plague other systems. They were able to record and measure changes in the mouse brain and even tracked individual neurons for long periods of time. Some of the electrodes could provide stimulation to neurons and this opens up avenues for very interesting digital interfaces.
2. Neural Pixel Interacts with Tiny Brain RegionsA tiny 20x20 micrometer device called a neural pixel consists of a sensor that detects neuronal signals and an ion pump that doses a tiny amount of the neurotransmitter GABA
http://liu.se/forskning/forskningsnyheter/1.691931?l=en. In this case the device detects neural cascades associated with epilepsy and doses GABA to inhibit and stop that activity from spreading - admittedly only in slices of brain at the moment. The possibility of including other drugs and neurotransmitters and placement in different brain regions makes this a genuinely interesting platform. It’d be interesting to combine this with #1 above. It’d be even more interesting to integrate a third, regenerative device that takes in nutrients from the surrounding tissue to produce GABA (in this case) to replenish the tiny reservoirs so it can operate indefinitely.
3. Custom Molecular CagesFirst, custom proteins are being developed that function as microcompartments for custom catalytic applications, and in this case internally incorporated catalytic iridium and palladium complexes that catalysed hydrogenation and cross-linking reactions
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2016/035895.html. Second, a method has been developed for synthesising (via self assembly) custom covalent organic nanotubes out of simple organic monomers that are stabilised by light-induced cross-linking
http://www.itbm.nagoya-u.ac.jp/en/research/2016/08/Itami-Ito-ONT.php. Both interesting platforms with a wide range of potential applications depending on the needs and materials used.
4. Giant Macrodimer MoleculesDiatomic molecules, or two-atom dimers, have been created from cesium atoms that are space one micrometer apart from one another
http://physics.aps.org/articles/v9/99. This comprises experimental confirmation of a decade-old theoretical prediction, although the dimers only exist for tens of microseconds. Depending on the state of the atoms and the distance between them the force they experience can be attractive or repulsive. This was all done by firing lasers at an ultracold gas of the atoms, with the lasers putting the atoms into the correct state, and so forcing the dimers to form to reduce their total energy.
5. Boosting Neurogenesis in Old BrainsA couple of new molecular techniques have been discovered for temporarily and intermittently boosting neurogenesis (creating new neurons) in older brains
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2016/09/a-method-of-intermittently-increasing-neurogenesis-in-the-aging-mouse-brain-is-shown-to-improve-memory-function/. In this work the expression of certain proteins important to dendritic spine maintenance were altered, removing a portion of spines of old neurons, and resulting in neural stem cells being activated and doubling the number of new neurons that integrated into the region, and when turned off the old spines grew back. Mice in these experiments exhibited improved memory function.
6. Antibody Clears Amyloid from Human BrainsThe results of a human clinical trial involving 165 people have demonstrated that an antibody effectively binds to amyloid plaques in human brains, mobilises microglial immune cells to remove and destroy the plaques, and almost completely clears the brain of plaques within a year
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2016/08/an-immunotherapy-clears-amyloid-from-the-brains-of-alzheimers-patients/. The cognitive decline suffered by the Alzheimer’s patients slowed significantly. More patients and continuing, longer trials should soon answer the question of the cause-or-symptom nature of amyloid in Alzheimer’s disease, although this work is promising. Similar techniques may quickly be adopted from this promising approach to create treatments for clearing tau protein and other protein clumps that contribute to disease and decline.
7. Carbon Nanotube Transistors Surpass SiliconNew carbon nanotube transistors can carry nearly double the current of silicon transistors
http://news.wisc.edu/for-first-time-carbon-nanotube-transistors-outperform-silicon/. This work involved depositing aligned arrays of carbon nanotubes on a 1-inch square wafer in order to form transistors coating the entire surface in less than five minutes. One of the key advances was new abilities to remove the vast majority of carbon nanotubes in order to achieve 99.99% semiconducting carbon nanotubes. There are more and more advances like this and it seems as though carbon nanotube transistors are starting to mature. Meanwhile Fujitsu looks set to launch carbon nanotube RAM chips by the end of 2018
http://nantero.com/fujitsu-semiconductor-and-mie-fujitsu-semiconductor-license-nanteros-nram-and-have-begun-developing-breakthrough-memory-products-for-multiple-markets/.
8. Telomerase and ALT Universal Cancer InvestigationRecent work is helping to determine how cancer cells switch from an activated telomerase mechanism of increasing or maintaining telomeres to the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) mechanism that 10% - 15% of cancers are driven by
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2016/09/an-investigation-of-how-telomerase-cancers-can-switch-to-become-alt-cancers/. Successfully targeting and treating both telomerase and ALT -based mechanisms provides the promise of being universally applicable to treating any and all cancers due to this fundamental mechanism being crucial to cancers growing beyond a small mass of cells and metastasising. Unlike telomerase in stem cells, ALT is not used by any normal adult cell and so can be deactivated systemically with little effect.
9. Room Temperature Atomic DepositionDARPA has developed the electron-enhanced atomic layer deposition technique that enables the room-temperature synthesis of ultra-thin-film microelectronics materials
http://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2016-08-31. Previous techniques have demanded temperatures over 800 degrees celsius to produce these types of films, but superior capabilities at room temperature now allow previously infeasible device and material compositions to be designed and created, and the ability to selectively etch different materials in composites provides an alternative to typical masking techniques.
10. GPS Accurate to the CentimeterA new software-based system running on a Raspberry Pi and totalling $35 worth of hardware provides cars with centimeter GPS accuracy
http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/sensors/centimeterlevel-gps-positioning-for-cars. The system does demand a network of ground-based network stations positioned no more than 20km apart (closer for built up areas) to help improve the accuracy and timing of GPS, but the utility of such accuracy to autonomous cars, trucks, drones, and other devices is obvious. The system has been successfully tested on smartphones but is unlikely to be rolled out to new smartphone devices in the foreseeable future due to added extra costs of antennas and power.
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