Tag: Nature Biotechnology

  • Nation & World

    The future of mind control

    A new paper explores why neuron-like implants could offer a better way to treat brain disorders, control prosthetics, or even enhance cognitive abilities.

    4 minutes
    raditional-neural-electrodes-versus-mesh-electronics
  • Nation & World

    Potential diabetes treatment advances

    Researchers at MIT’s David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, in collaboration with scientists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and several other institutions, have developed an implantable device that in mice shielded insulin-producing beta cells from immune system attack for six months — a substantial proportion of life span.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Potential treatment for muscular dystrophy

    Harvard researchers report that by identifying and mimicking important developmental cues, they have been able to drive cells to grow into muscle fibers capable of contracting in a dish and multiplying in large numbers. This new method of producing muscle cells could offer a better model for studying muscle diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, and…

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Toward genetic editing

    Led by David Liu, professor of chemistry and chemical biology, a team of Harvard researchers developed a system that uses commercially available molecules called cationic lipids to deliver genome-editing proteins into cells.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    SLIPS inspires second generation

    In a study reported in Nature Biotechnology, a team of Harvard scientists and engineers has developed a new surface coating for medical devices using materials already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The researchers noted that the coating repelled blood from more than 20 medically relevant substrates (glass, plastic, and metal) and also…

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Artificial jellyfish swims in a heartbeat

    A team of researchers at Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology has turned inanimate silicon and living cardiac muscle cells into a freely swimming “jellyfish.”

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    RNA dynamics deconstructed

    RNA plays a critical role in directing the creation of proteins, but there is more to the life of an RNA molecule than simply carrying DNA’s message.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Two studies prove value of iPS cells

    A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Columbia University, have demonstrated that many iPS cells (stem cells created by reprogramming adult cells) are the equal of human embryonic stem cells in creating human motor neurons, the cells destroyed in a number of neurological diseases, including Parkinson’s.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Tracking nanoparticles

    Using a real-time imaging system, scientists have tracked a group of near-infrared fluorescent nanoparticles from the airspaces of the lungs into the body and out again, providing a description of the characteristics and behavior of the particles that could be used in developing therapeutic agents to treat pulmonary disease.

    4 minutes