Toggle light / dark theme

Genetically modified pig hearts transplanted into two more patients

The team of researchers who transplanted a genetically modified pigโ€™s heart into a living human earlier this year have completed two more pig heart transplant surgeries, setting the protocol for such operations.

In January this year, 57-year-old David Bennett became the first man on the planet to receive a heart from a genetically modified pig. Before this, researchers transplanted kidneys from similarly modified pigs into patients that were brain dead.

The organs are sourced from a company called Revivicor which uses genetic engineering to remove specific genes in the pigs to help in reducing transplant rejection while adding some that make the organs more compatible with the human immune system.

Global team of scientists discover new gene causing severe neurodevelopmental delays

The Neuro-Network.

๐†๐ฅ๐จ๐›๐š๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ž๐š๐ฆ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฌ๐œ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐œ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ ๐ง๐ž๐ฐ ๐ ๐ž๐ง๐ž ๐œ๐š๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐ง๐ž๐ฎ๐ซ๐จ๐๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ฅ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐š๐ฅ ๐๐ž๐ฅ๐š๐ฒ๐ฌ

๐˜ผ๐™ฃ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ง๐™ฃ๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™–๐™ก ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™–๐™ข ๐™ค๐™› ๐™ง๐™š๐™จ๐™š๐™–๐™ง๐™˜๐™๐™š๐™ง๐™จ ๐™ก๐™š๐™™ ๐™—๐™ฎ ๐™๐˜พ ๐˜ฟ๐™–๐™ซ๐™ž๐™จ ๐™œ๐™š๐™ฃ๐™š๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™˜๐™ž๐™จ๐™ฉ ๐™Ž๐™ช๐™ข๐™– ๐™Ž๐™๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ ๐™–โ€ฆ See more.


An international team of researchers led by UC Davis geneticist Suma Shankar has discovered a new gene implicated in a neurodevelopmental condition called DPH5-related diphthamide-deficiency syndrome. The syndrome is caused by DPH5 gene variants that may lead to embryonic death or profound neurodevelopmental delays.

Findings from their study were published in Genetics in Medicine.

โ€œWe are so excited about the novel gene discovery,โ€ said the lead author Suma Shankar, professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Ophthalmology and faculty at the UC Davis MIND Institute. Shankar is the director of Precision Genomics, Albert Rowe Endowed Chair in Genetics, and chief of Division of Genomic Medicine.

During sleep the brainโ€™s reaction to sound remains strong but one critical feature of conscious attention disappears

The Neuro-Network.

๐ƒ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ž๐ž๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐›๐ซ๐š๐ข๐งโ€™๐ฌ ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ ๐ซ๐ž๐ฆ๐š๐ข๐ง๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐  ๐›๐ฎ๐ญ ๐จ๐ง๐ž ๐œ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ฅ ๐Ÿ๐ž๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐œ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐š๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ฌ

๐˜ผ ๐™ฃ๐™š๐™ฌ ๐™™๐™ž๐™จ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง๐™ฎ ๐™›๐™ง๐™ค๐™ข ๐™๐™š๐™ก ๐˜ผ๐™ซ๐™ž๐™ซ ๐™๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง๐™จ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ฎ ๐™ข๐™–โ€ฆ See more.


A new discovery from Tel Aviv University may provide a key to a great scientific enigma: How does the awake brain transform sensory input into a conscious experience? The groundbreaking study relied on data collected from electrodes implanted, for medical purposes, deep in the human brain. The information was utilized to examine differences between the response of the cerebral cortex to sounds in sleep vs. wakefulness, at a resolution of single neurons.

Amazon is quietly developing cancer vaccines in partnership with Fred Hutchinson and recruiting patients for a new clinical trial

The cancer vaccine project is the latest indication of Amazonโ€™s growing interest in the healthcare sector.


Distinct neuron types in the auditory organ are necessary for encoding different features of sound and relaying them to the brain. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet provide evidence of an early, neuronal activity-independent, emergence of the different subtypes of auditory neurons, prior to birth in mice. The findings have recently been published in Nature Communications.

Neurons specialized in encoding sound emerge before birth

Distinct neuron types in the auditory organ are necessary for encoding different features of sound and relaying them to the brain. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet provide evidence of an early, neuronal activity-independent, emergence of the different subtypes of auditory neurons, prior to birth in mice. The findings have recently been published in Nature Communications.

Previous studies have provided ambiguous results on whether the different subtypes of emerge during prenatal or postnatal development, with in the latter case, a possible role of neuronal activity in generating their diversity. In this new study, researchers demonstrate that the fate of auditory neuron subtypes is under genetic control in the prenatal period, and reveal the complex controlling their genesis.

Smaller Than a Flea โ€” The Smallest Remote-Controlled Walking Robot Ever

The tiny crabs, which are about half a millimeter wide, can bend, twist, crawl, walk, turn, and even leap. Additionally, the scientists created millimeter-sized robots that resemble inchworms, crickets, and beetles. The study is experimental at this time, but the researchers think their technique might move the field closer to developing tiny robots that can carry out useful tasks in small, cramped areas.

The study was recently published in the journal Science Robotics. The same team also unveiled a winged microprocessor in September of last year; it was the tiniest flying object ever created by humans (published on the cover of Nature).

โ€œRobotics is an exciting field of research, and the development of microscale robots is a fun topic for academic exploration,โ€ said John A. Rogers, who led the experimental work. โ€œYou might imagine micro-robots as agents to repair or assemble small structures or machines in industry or as surgical assistants to clear clogged arteries, to stop internal bleeding or to eliminate cancerous tumors โ€” all in minimally invasive procedures.โ€

How to make spatial maps of gene activity โ€” down to the cellular level

Under a microscope, mammalian tissues reveal their intricate and elegant architectures. But if you look at the same tissue after tumour formation, you will see bedlam. Itai Yanai, a computational biologist at New York Universityโ€™s Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, is trying to find order in this chaos. โ€œThere is a particular logic to how things are arranged, and spatial transcriptomics is helping us see that,โ€ he says.

โ€˜Spatial transcriptomicsโ€™ is a blanket term covering more than a dozen techniques for charting genome-scale gene-expression patterns in tissue samples, developed to complement single-cell RNA-sequencing techniques. Yet these single-cell sequencing methods have a downside โ€” they can rapidly profile the messenger RNA content (or transcriptome) of large numbers of individual cells, but generally require physical disruption of the original tissue, which sacrifices crucial information about how cells are organized and can alter them in ways that might muddy later analyses. Immunologist Ido Amit at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, says that such experiments would sometimes leave his group questioning their results. โ€œIs this really the in situ state, or are we just looking at something which is either not a major [factor] or even not real at all?โ€

By contrast, spatial transcriptomics allows researchers to study gene expression in intact samples, opening frontiers in cancer research and revealing previously inaccessible biology of otherwise well-characterized tissues. The resulting โ€˜atlasesโ€™ of spatial information can tell scientists which cells make up each tissue, how they are organized and how they communicate. But compiling those atlases isnโ€™t easy, because methods for spatial transcriptomics generally represent a tension between two competing goals: broader transcriptome coverage and tighter spatial resolution. Developments in experimental and computational methods are now helping researchers to balance those aims โ€” and improving cellular resolution in the process.