All posts tagged: Brain Cells

New light-sensing device acts like a neuron in the human brain

New light-sensing device acts like a neuron in the human brain

Published by Jenni Sidey

A small device that senses light and reacts like a brain cell could change how machines see and think. Built at the nanoscale, the structure does more than detect light. It processes information at the same time, much like a neuron in the human brain. Researchers at McGill University say the discovery could reshape fields ranging from artificial vision to computing. Their work shows that complex, neuron-like behavior can emerge directly from the materials themselves, without relying on heavy software or large circuits. “In our paper, using unique materials and nanostructure, we made for the first time a device that can closely mimic the neuron dynamics we’d see in a biological context,” said Songrui Zhao, the study’s lead author. A Shift In How Machines Process Information Modern vision systems usually separate sensing and processing. Cameras collect data, then send it to another system for analysis. A graphical abstract of the study. (CREDIT: Nanoscale) This new device works differently. It detects light and interprets it in the same place. That mirrors how the eye processes visual …

Printed artificial neurons can communicate with living brain cells

Printed artificial neurons can communicate with living brain cells

Published by Jenni Sidey

A new kind of printed electronic neuron may bring scientists closer to machines that communicate directly with living brain cells. Northwestern University engineers have developed soft, flexible devices that fire electrical signals similar to real neurons. In early tests, those artificial signals activated living brain cells from mouse tissue. The work could shape future brain-machine interfaces, neuroprosthetics and energy-saving computers. It also offers a new path for technology inspired by the most efficient computer known: the human brain. “The world we live in today is dominated by artificial intelligence (AI),” said Northwestern’s Mark C. Hersam, who led the study. “The way you make AI smarter is by training it on more and more data. This data-intensive training leads to a massive power-consumption problem. Therefore, we have to come up with more efficient hardware to handle big data and AI. Because the brain is five orders of magnitude more energy efficient than a digital computer, it makes sense to look to the brain for inspiration for next-generation computing.” Why Brain-Like Electronics Matter Today’s computers rely on …

Rainfall became irregular during Earth’s hottest periods, raising global warming concerns

Rainfall became irregular during Earth’s hottest periods, raising global warming concerns

Published by Jenni Sidey

The climate record holds some of its best warnings in stone, soil, and leaves. In a new study, scientists from the University of Utah and the Colorado School of Mines looked back to one of Earth’s hottest eras to see how rain behaved when the planet ran far warmer than today. What they found challenges existing knowledge regarding climate change and rainfall. The research examines the early Paleogene, roughly 66 to 48 million years ago. During that stretch, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels sat about two to four times higher than modern levels. The team used that deep-time heat as a test case for how a hotter world can reshape the water cycle. Instead of asking only how much rain fell in a year, the researchers focused on something that often gets missed. They asked when rain fell and how steady it was across seasons and years. Their conclusion is blunt. Under extreme warming, rainfall can become far less reliable, even in places that are not deserts. Climate in the modern world and early Palaeogene, including …

‘Gatekeeper’ lining brain cells may guard against Alzheimer’s disease

‘Gatekeeper’ lining brain cells may guard against Alzheimer’s disease

Published by Jenni Sidey

Neurons never sit still for long. Receptors move in and out of the cell surface. Signals surge, fade, then surge again. Beneath that activity, a fine lattice made of actin and spectrin quietly lines the inner membrane. In a new study, researchers used super-resolution imaging to watch how that lattice, known as the membrane-associated periodic skeleton, or MPS, shapes what enters a neuron and what stays out. Their findings suggest the MPS does more than hold structure. It acts as a physical barrier that regulates endocytosis, the process cells use to pull material inside. The team visualized four major endocytic pathways in mature neurons: clathrin-mediated endocytosis, caveolin-mediated endocytosis, flotillin-mediated endocytosis, and fast endophilin-mediated endocytosis. Using structured illumination microscopy and 3D STORM imaging, they mapped where these pathways operate across axons, dendrites, and the axon initial segment. Ruobo Zhou, assistant professor of chemistry, of biochemistry and molecular biology, and of biomedical engineering, on left, co-led the study with Jinyu Fei, a graduate student in the chemistry department in Penn State’s Eberly College of Science. (CREDIT: Jaydyn …

AI-built ‘digital twin’ helps doctors precisely target glioma cancer

AI-built ‘digital twin’ helps doctors precisely target glioma cancer

Published by Jenni Sidey

A team at the University of Michigan has built a new way to “read” a brain tumor’s appetite while it is still inside a patient. The approach uses machine learning to create a computer “digital twin” of a person’s glioma, then estimates how fast the tumor consumes and reshapes nutrients. The work aims to help doctors pick treatments that match the biology of an individual tumor, instead of guessing and hoping the cancer is vulnerable. Gliomas can look similar on scans yet behave very differently. Some depend on certain amino acids, the small building blocks your body uses to make proteins. If those amino acids become scarce, those tumors may slow down. Other gliomas can make the same amino acids on their own and keep growing anyway. Until now, doctors have not had an easy way to tell which patient might actually benefit from a targeted diet plan. The same problem shows up with some drugs. One example in the study is mycophenolate mofetil, which interferes with how cells make a key building block for …

New bioluminescent tool lets scientists watch live neural activity for hours

New bioluminescent tool lets scientists watch live neural activity for hours

Published by Jenni Sidey

Deep inside the brain, every thought and memory begins with a burst of electrical activity. For years, scientists have tried to watch that activity in real time by shining lasers into the brain. Now a new tool lets brain cells light themselves from within, turning them into tiny living lanterns. Lighting Up the Brain From Within About a decade ago, a team of neuroscientists started asking a bold question: “What if we could light up the brain from the inside?” said Christopher Moore, a professor of brain science at Brown University. Instead of blasting tissue with outside light, they wondered if neurons could make their own glow. That idea led to the launch of the Bioluminescence Hub at Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science in 2017, supported by a major National Science Foundation grant. The hub brought together Moore, institute director Diane Lipscombe, Ute Hochgeschwender at Central Michigan University and molecular engineer Nathan Shaner at the University of California San Diego. CaBLAM architecture and Ca2+ affinity. (CREDIT: Nature Methods) Their shared goal was simple to …

New ‘glue sniffer’ sensor lets scientists watch brain cells talk in real time

New ‘glue sniffer’ sensor lets scientists watch brain cells talk in real time

Published by Jenni Sidey

The next time you reach for a memory or make a quick choice, a storm of tiny signals races through your brain. Scientists can usually see only half of that storm. Now, a new engineered protein finally lets them watch the quiet half too, the delicate chemical whispers that start each thought. Cracking the Brain’s Hidden Code Billions of neurons in your brain send electrical spikes along their long branches. When those spikes reach the end, they hit a dead end. The signal cannot jump the small gap to the next cell by electricity alone. Instead, the neuron releases chemicals called neurotransmitters into that gap, the synapse. Glutamate is the most common of these messengers, and it is central to learning, memory, and emotion. Glutamate is also subtle. The amounts released at a single synapse are tiny and vanish in a blink. Screening iGluSnFR variants in primary neuronal culture. (CREDIT: Nature Methods) For years, neuroscientists have been good at listening to neurons’ outgoing electrical spikes. They could see when a cell fired. What they could …

New cellular discovery may explain how Alzheimer’s disease spreads through the brain

New cellular discovery may explain how Alzheimer’s disease spreads through the brain

Published by Jenni Sidey

A single damaged protein inside one brain cell may seem insignificant. Yet new research shows how that small mistake can ripple outward, spreading harm across the brain. Scientists at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have uncovered a cellular process that may help explain how Alzheimer’s disease grows from scattered trouble into widespread damage. The study was led by Michael Glickman, dean of the Technion’s Faculty of Biology, and postdoctoral researcher Ajay Wagh. Their work reveals that brain cells sometimes protect themselves by pushing toxic proteins outside the cell instead of destroying them. That choice may save one neuron while quietly endangering many others nearby. A Mystery at the Heart of Alzheimer’s Alzheimer’s disease begins long before memory loss appears. At its earliest stages, damage often starts in isolated neurons. Over time, that damage spreads, affecting larger brain regions and disrupting thought, behavior, and identity. For years, scientists have asked how this spread happens. Q- and R-SNAREs involved in UBB+1 secretion. (A) WT and sec22b KO HeLa cells were transiently transfected with a MYC-UBB+1 …

All day brain tracking helps scientists finally decode fatigue

All day brain tracking helps scientists finally decode fatigue

Published by Jenni Sidey

Most of the time, you assume your brain is either “on” or “off,” awake or asleep. A new study shows something far more intricate. Deep inside the skull, entire networks of cells quietly hand off control across the day, like shifts of workers trading places on a factory floor. An international team led by the University of Michigan has mapped which parts of the brain are active at different times of day, down to the level of single cells, in mice. Their work offers a rare, global view of how activity moves through the brain as animals wake, stay up, and finally sleep. Tracking a Day in the Life of a Brain The project started with a deceptively simple goal: understand fatigue. Senior author Daniel Forger, a professor of mathematics at Michigan, and his colleagues wanted to see how the brain changes as wakefulness drags on and how sleep resets those changes. Overall framework to identify, digitize, and analyze the active neurons or networks in the mouse brain. (CREDIT: PLOS Biology) “We’re seeing profound changes …