Wednesday, 9. September 2009, 12:26:39
bioelectronics, electronics, nanotechnology, computers
...
A hybrid of silicon nanocircuits and biological components that mimics some of the processes that control the passage of molecules into and out of cells has been created by a team of scientists from UC Davis, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and UC Berkeley.
The lipid-coated nanocircuits could lead to the development of new classes of bio-sensing tools and biological applications, such as comprehensive blood-chemistry tests that fit on the point of a needle or screening tools for the development of new drugs.
“This is an example of a marriage between integrated circuit technology and biotechnology,” said Pieter Stroeve, a professor of chemical engineering and materials science at UC Davis and one of three lead scientists on the project. “The technology of both can be mass produced, so in theory, their integration can also be mass produced.”
Source:
http://www.physorg.com/news170619218.html
Wednesday, 1. July 2009, 10:10:53
converter, synthetic cells, bioelectronics
A network of artificial cells that work together to act as an AC/DC converter has been built. Demonstrating that synthetic cells can team up to achieve such feats is a step towards building synthetic tissues to interface biology with electronics, says the team of chemists behind the work.
Synthetic biologists have show they can reprogram living cells to make them produce drug compounds, and are even working towards building cells from scratch to create artificial life.
But that work focuses on only individual cells, says Hagan Bayley at the University of Oxford. He's more interested in making artificial tissue in which individual synthetic cells work together.
Bayley's group, working with colleagues at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, has made a step towards that goal by connecting together multiple artificial "protocells" so that they share electrical signals.
Source:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17325-synthetic-cells-get-together-to-make-electronics.html
Monday, 9. February 2009, 09:43:23
nerve cells, User Interface, Computer, BCP
...
Scientists have already hooked brains directly to computers by means of metal electrodes, in the hope of both measuring what goes on inside the brain and eventually healing conditions such as blindness or epilepsy. In the future, the interface between brain and artificial system might be based on nerve cells grown for that purpose.
In research that was recently featured on the cover of Nature Physics, Prof. Elisha Moses of the Physics of Complex Systems Department and his former research students Drs. Ofer Feinerman and Assaf Rotem have taken the first step in this direction by creating circuits and logic gates made of live nerves grown in the lab.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092339.htm
Friday, 6. June 2008, 09:21:27
bioelectronics, electronics, nanotechnology, medicine
A team of researchers led by Ludwig Gauckler, a Professor of material science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, has created a nanocomposite of aluminum oxide and a polymer, which is as tough as metal but stretchy and light. The new material may lead to the development of longer lasting dental and bone implants, lighter, more fuel-efficient cars and airplanes, and bendable electronic devices.
In trying to create the nanocomposite, the team tried to mimic nanostructures found in nature, such as those found in shells, bones, and tooth enamel. All consist of stiff ceramic platelets arranged in a polymer matrix, like bricks in mortar. The hybrid materials combine the strength of ceramics and the stretchiness of polymers.
Source:
http://www.tfot.info/news/1188/new-strong-light-and-stretchy-materials.html
Friday, 20. April 2007, 14:11:48
chip technology, nanotechnology, bioelectronics
In wet lab 412C on the University of Southern California’s Los Angeles campus, Vijay Srinivasan is poking a long, evil-looking needle at a slice of rat brain about half the size of a fingernail. All around him, coils of cable are piled near hulking microscopes. Glass vials and fluid-filled plastic dishes compete for space with spare keyboards and computer chips. The place looks more like a computer-repair shop than a world-class laboratory.
“Watch this,” says Srinivasan, a design engineer working with USC’s Center for Neural Engineering. A thin wire runs between the needle and a tiny silicon chip hooked up to a boxy signal transmitter. He flips a switch, and a series of small waves shimmers across a nearby screen—waves that mean exactly zilch to me. Watch what? I wonder.
Srinivasan explains that the chip is sending electric pulses through the needle into the brain slice, which is passing them on to the screen we’re watching. “The difference in the waves’ modulation reflects the signals sent out by the brain slice,” he says. “And they’re almost identical in frequency and pattern to the pulses sent by the chip.” Put more simply, this iron-gray wafer about a millimeter square is talking to living brain cells as though it were an actual body part.
Source:
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/printerfriendly/science/0e54d952c97b1110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
WIDGETIZE