Holy Cow, Can You Hear Me Now?
Hearing loss has many causes including genetic disorders, extended exposure to dangerously loud sounds and normal aging. Hearing aids can’t repair the damage regardless of the cause. Taking a different approach that uses biology and technology, researchers at Princeton are developing a bionic ear that contains biological and electronic materials, including bovine or cow cells, silicone, and silver nanoparticles. The structure of cartilage cells from cows is similar to that of human cells, and bovine cells are much easier to obtain.
One Step Forward: Salamanders and Limb Regeneration
Looking for a better answer for amputees, researchers have turned to nature’s expert in limb regeneration, the salamander. The human body initially reacts similarly to that of a salamander. We immediately form a scar to prevent the open wound from infections and major blood loss, but our bodies stop there. Unlike the salamanders, we cannot reactivate or naturally form a blastema to regenerate a new limb in a few weeks.
Bionic Woman Live: Horsehead Grasshopper Works Behind the Scene
Scientists and engineers at MIT are striving to change the design of artificial limbs which are difficult to use and extremely painful. Their efforts are benefiting from studies on a very curious insect model: the horsehead grasshopper that can move its limbs without relying on any muscles. They studied denervated grasshopper limbs that were flexed at different angles and found that a “passive joint force” moves limbs to their original positions when flexed.
Looking at Armadillos for a Cure to Blindness
Normally when studying disorders that cause blindness in humans, scientists genetically disable cone-related genes in small animals like mice. Studying nine-banded armadillos would give scientists a much more realistic model to test viable treatment options, such as gene therapy, a method of correcting a genetic disease by replacing defective genes with corrected copies. If gene therapy were able to correct the nine-banded armadillo’s cone-related mutations, it could be adapted to correct forms of human blindness.
An Abnormal Heart
An abnormal heart in her newborn, a devastating flaw,
one that this mother blames herself for.
Although the cause is unclear, she still cries,
and unaware of her own genetic code.
These vital genes, construct the heart;
the most important organ to life.
Distorted valves and chambers affected by Congenital Heart Disease,
lead to an unpromising future.
