
NBIC - Multidisciplinary scientific field at the crossroads of nanotechnologies (N), biotechnologies (B), information technology (I) and cognitive sciences (C).
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Tech Future
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Human brain cells in a dish learn to play Pong faster than an AI
Hundreds of thousands of brain cells in a dish are being taught to play Pong by responding to pulses of electricity – and can improve their performance more quickly than an AI can.
Friday, November 26, 2021
Proton therapy: a success story that started 25 years ago
At the Swiss Paul Scherrer Institute's Center for Proton Therapy, they treat cancer patients and do research for optimized radiotherapy.
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
New hydrogel can repair tears in human tissue
EPFL scientists have developed an injectable gel that can attach to various kinds of soft internal tissues and repair tears resulting from an accident or trauma.
Our soft tissues can be torn during a ski accident, a car accident or an accident in the home, for example. And surgeons can have a hard time binding the tissue back together, as stitches often do more harm than good. According to Dominique Pioletti, the head of the Laboratory of Biomechanical Orthopedics at EPFL’s School of Engineering, such surgeries don’t always produce optimal outcomes because the repaired tissue usually doesn’t heal properly. This tends to be the case for tears in cartilage and the cornea, for instance.
Researchers around the world have been trying for years to develop an adhesive for soft tissue that can withstand the natural stresses and strains within the human body. Pioletti’s group has now come up with a novel family of injectable biomaterials that can bind to various forms of soft tissue. Their bioadhesives, in the form of a gel, can be used in a variety of injury-treatment applications. Their research has just been published in Macromolecular Rapid Communications.
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Friday, March 19, 2021
Monday, January 18, 2021
Snap-freezing reveals a truer structure of brain connections
Scientists at EPFL (near Lausanne, Switzerland) have used a snap-freezing method to reveal the true structure of the connections that join neurons together in the adult brain.
Most synaptic connections in the adult brain are situated on dendritic spines; small, micrometer-long, protrusions extending from the neurons’ surface. The spines’ exact size and shape determine how well signals are passed from one neuron to another.
These details become very important when neuroscientists want to model brain circuits or understand how information is transmitted between neurons across the brain’s neuronal circuits. However, their small size and the difficulties in preserving brain tissue in its natural state have always left the question open as to what the true structure of the dendritic spine is.
Scientists from EPFL’s School of Life Sciences have now used a snap-freezing method of liquid nitrogen jets, combined with very high pressures, to instantaneously preserve small pieces of brain tissue. The researchers, from the labs of Graham Knott and Carl Petersen, then used high-resolution, 3D imaging with electron microscopes to reveal how the true dendritic spine structure was similar to that shown in previous studies, except for one important aspect: The instant freezing method showed dendritic spines with significantly thinner necks.
This finding validates a considerable body of theoretical and functional data going back many years, which shows that dendritic spines are chemical, as well as electrical, compartments isolated from the rest of the neuron by a thin and high-resistance neck. Variations in the neck diameter have an important impact on how a synapse influences the rest of the neuron.
“As well as revealing the true shape of these important brain structures, this work highlights the usefulness of rapid freezing methods and electron microscopy for obtaining a more detailed view of the architecture of cells and tissues,” says Graham Knott.
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Friday, May 22, 2020
The coronavirus’ rampage through the body
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Revolutionising the CRISPR method
