Showing posts with label Medical Tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medical Tech. Show all posts
Optogenetics is advancing into new dimensions
The so-called combined optogenetics genetically manipulated neural cells with a light source for selectively to areas of the brain and off. The method has proven in animal studies to be extremely interesting for neuroscience and could someday lead to new therapies. The problem: So far, the necessary light rays are normally delivered only to specific points in the brain, although the brain activity consists of a complex sequence of activations in different areas.
A novel 3-D chip to the optogenetics therefore lead into the third dimension - send with the possibility of light patterns of nerve cells in the brain to almost anywhere, Technology Review reported in its online edition. "In the coming years there will be many of these devices," says Ilker Ozden, research professor at the Nanophotonics and Neuroengineering Laboratory at Brown University, who are working on similar technologies.
The new device comes from the Synthetic Biology Group at the MIT Media Lab. "The brain is a three-dimensional object," explains Ed Boyden, senior author of the new study. Far more than two optical fibers were used to control parts of the nerve cells. Would be necessary here, but much more control. A single light source is as if you play only one note, says Boyden. "A 3-D chip allows us to control the brain, such as a keyboard."
Still, the chip has not been tested on animals, the researchers are currently to use the device in living mice and to examine the activation patterns. The goal is to increase the amount of information that can be processed one optogenetics system. "There With a 3-D array is a set of possibilities that you could not even think so far," says Boyden.
Digital Nurse Assisant: More time for patients
Nurses spend a lot of time on things that have little to do with direct patient contact: You need to log in regularly on the PC, look for medical records, enter new data and to vote on this documentation work also with colleagues to ensure that everything is all right .
Researchers at the American IT company Xerox are currently developing a system to automate the parts of these tasks and to allow the nursing staff to provide more time for patients. The so-called digital Nurse Assisant is part of a larger automation project should be improved in the existing health management systems, Technology Review reported in its online edition.
The Xerox project that emerges from the research laboratory PARC in Palo Alto is, not only IT professionals, but also ethnographers, to find out how exactly does the nursing staff. It found, among other things, why exactly does it take until the documentation is complete - and as difficult to use current systems for management of electronic health records are. Every time a nurse logs into their workstation, they had to go through in one case up to six menus, until they had the necessary information. The challenges of coordination with other employees were also readily apparent.
"Imagine a sister before that enters a hospital room," says Markus Fromherz, chief innovation of the health division at Xerox. "You must not go to a computer. Instead, the system recognizes the card, which it carries, and logs them on automatically." The Digital Assistant Nurse also knew which patient is in the room and what tasks need to be completed immediately.
Kurzweil want to build brain circuits
The futurist Ray Kurzweil believes the human brain derived from the template for more powerful computers can. In an interview with Technology Review (recently at the kiosk or directly in H Shop) said Kurzweil, he founded a new company, to the theories he explains in his new book "How to Create a Mind" to use, technically.
"One of the essential elements of human intelligence is the ability of the neocortex, that the evolutionarily recent part of the cerebral cortex to organize information hierarchically," argues Kurzweil. "The neocortex can ignore facts, then abstract the abstract facts again and so on. This process has to go through the brain to train intelligence ".
An essential element of this information processing Kurzweil "modules" identified in the brain that are responsible for this hierarchical information processing. The neuroscientist Henry Markram, the simulated with his "Blue Brain Project" parts of a rat's brain - its ultimate goal is the simulation of a complete human brain - have shown that the brain's modules, which consist of about 100 neurons whose internal wiring in itself not change over time, says Kurzweil. "The connections between these modules undergo changes greatly when the brain learns. These modules that are analogous to loud Kurzweil hidden Markov models, "are able to recognize patterns. In order to sort these patterns hierarchically, they combine with other modules, "as people do when reading letters to them to form words. In this way, learning the brain, Kurzweil.
Kurzweil, 64, the daily swallows about 150 pills a day in order to experience "the full flowering of the biotechnology revolution", is regarded as something of a personalized faith in progress of Silicon Valley. For more than twenty years ago produced the futurist and inventor books in which he describes what will happen in the next decades to humanity: programmable nanobots in our bloodstream, software downloads for human consciousness - and, finally, the "singularity" , the point at which no meaningful predictions about technological developments are possible.
That the life-prolonging drugs futurologist not only in his books promoted, but they also sold in an online store has, however, brought him severe criticism. When asked whether he had any concerns so that damaging his scientific reputation, Kurzweil responds: "Well, if you" Fantastic Voyage ", you will find approximately 2000 scientific citations. From recognized scientific journals. All we are suggesting is actually quite conservative. We do not recommend controversial agent such as human growth hormone. In short, there are a lot of scientific evidence. But many of my critics have not read the plain. "
Virtual genome: Duplicate gene test in the seed bank
The available in seed banks sperm can already be tested for some genetic defects. The U.S. firm GenePeeks now wants to go a step ahead and analyze how the DNA of a woman would be combined with that of a sperm donor, Technology Review reported in its online edition. The new test could come in six months on the market, says Anne Morris, co-founder and CEO of GenePeeks.
The company uses for gene analysis, a so-called microarrays to examine approximately 250,000 base pairs in the DNA of the donor and recipient. This method is cheaper than the sequencing of the genomes. From the information provided, as well as previous findings, such as the genetic material is mixed with the fusion of egg and sperm, constructed GenePeeks a "virtual genome". Which is then checked for known risk genes, such as the for fibrosis.
Although seed banks already check the sperm of donors to the corresponding gene defect. But even if it is discovered, is not to say that the child - forms disease - often fatal. For it would have to pass on him both parents ever a fibrosis gene. It receives only one copy - the gene "recessive" is -, ill not the child itself, but perhaps the gene plays in the next generation. GenePeeks wants to identify with his method, the risk of a few thousand other diseases that are caused by inherited genetic defects such double.
Trigger for GenePeeks-founder Morris was her own experience with donor sperm. Their son Alec suffers from a genetic disorder that prevents his body from fat molecules convert into chemical energy. This can result in seizures, coma or even sudden death. In Morris' family, there had been up to that point no one showed this defect. What they did not realize: Not only they carried the recessive gene in itself, but unfortunately also the DNA of an anonymous sperm donor.
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