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"Stem-Cell Dental Implants Grow New Teeth Right In Your Mouth"

"Dieter Klemm forscht in zwei Spin-offs der Uni Jena, der "Polymet Jena Association" und der "Jenpolymer Materials", an medizinischen Anwendungen der Nanocellulose. Dabei nutzt er aus, dass sich die Fasernetze schon bei der Synthese in die gewünschte Form etwa als Vlies, Film oder Hohlkörper bringen lassen. Wenn er die Bakterien etwa auf einem Zylinder wachsen lässt, verbinden sich die von ihnen produzierten Fasern zu einer dichten Hülle. Entfernt man die Form, bleibt ein Röhrchen aus Nanocellulose übrig, das sich direkt als Implantat für Blutgefäße einsetzen lässt. Solche Implantate testet Klemm bereits an Tieren"

"Igor Efimov, Sarah Gutbrod Using an inexpensive 3-D printer, biomedical engineers have developed a custom-fitted, implantable device with embedded sensors that could transform treatment and prediction of cardiac disorders. The 3-D elastic membrane is made of a soft, flexible, silicon material that is precisely shaped to match the heart's outer layer of the wall. Current technology is two-dimensional and cannot cover the full surface of the epicardium or maintain reliable contact for continual use without sutures or adhesives. The team can then print tiny sensors onto the membrane that can precisely measure temperature, mechanical strain and pH, among other markers, or deliver a pulse of electricity in cases of arrhythmi"

"Wussten Sie beispielsweise, dass Spinnenseide fünf Mal reißfester als Stahl, sowie extrem stabil und elastisch ist? Das sind Eigenschaften, die sich die Medizin zu Nutzen machen will. Da die Seide nämlich vom Körper nicht als fremd erkannt wird und daher eine Immunabwehr ausbleibt, arbeiten Wissenschaftler daran, aus dem Material Nerven von Unfallopfern zu rekonstruieren - etwa bei einer Querschnittslähmung. Erste vielversprechende Erfolge können sie im Tierversuch bereits vorweisen. Doch damit nicht genug. Mediziner wollen Spinnenseide außerdem dazu benutzen, künstliche Haut und verschiedene Implantate zu züchten"

Theodore Berger and his team at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Department of Biomedical Engineering have developed a neural prosthesis for rats that is able to restore their ability to form long-term memories after they had been pharmacologically blocked. In a dramatic demonstration, Berger blocked the ability to rats to form long-term memories by using pharmacological agents to disrupt the neural circuitry that communicates between two subregions of the hippocampus, CA1 and CA3, which interact to create long-term memory, prior research has shown. The rats were unable to remember which lever to pull to gain a reward, or could only remember for 5-10 seconds, when previously they could remember for a long period of time. The researchers then developed an artificial hippocampal system that could duplicate the pattern of interaction between CA3-CA1 interactions. Long-term memory capability returned to the pharmacologically blocked rats when the team activated the electronic device programmed to duplicate the memory-encoding function. The researchers went on to show that if a prosthetic device and its associated electrodes were implanted in animals with a normal, functioning hippocampus, the device could actually strengthen the memory being generated internally in the brain and enhance the memory capability of normal rats. "These integrated experimental modeling studies show for the first time that with sufficient information about the neural coding of memories, a neural prosthesis capable of real-time identification and manipulation of the encoding process can restore and even enhance cognitive mnemonic processes," says the paper. Next steps, according to Berger and Deadwyler, will be attempts to duplicate the rat results in primates (monkeys), with the aim of eventually creating prostheses that might help human victims of Alzheimer's disease, stroke, or injury recover function. Ref.: "A Cortical Neural Prosthesis for Restoring and Enhancing

Listen up, Facebook and Twitter groupies: how easily can social pressure affect your memory? Very easily, researchers at the Weizmann Institute and University College London have proved, and they think they even know what part of the brain is responsible. The participants conformed to the group on these "planted" responses, giving incorrect answers nearly 70% of the time. Volunteers watched a documentary film in small groups. Three days later, they returned to the lab individually to take a memory test, answering questions about the film. They were also asked how confident they were in their answers. They were later invited back to the lab to retake the test. This time, the subjects were also given supposed answers of the others in their film-viewing group (along with social-media-style photos) while being scanned in a functional MRI (fMRI) that revealed their brain activity. Is most of what you know false? Planted among these were false answers to questions the volunteers had previously answered correctly and confidently. The participants conformed to the group on these "planted" responses, giving incorrect answers nearly 70% of the time. To determine if their memory of the film had actually undergone a change, the researchers invited the subjects back to the lab later to take the memory test once again, telling them that the answers they had previously been fed were not those of their fellow film watchers, but random computer generations. Some of the responses reverted back to the original, correct ones, but get this: despite finding out the scientists messed with their minds, close to half of their responses remained erroneous, implying that the subjects were relying on false memories implanted in the earlier session. An analysis of the fMRI data showed a strong co-activation and connectivity between two brain areas: the hippocampus and the amygdala. Social reinforcement could act on the amygdala to persuade our brains to replace a strong memory wi

General Dentistry is concerned more on the maintenance and the health of the teeth and gums.It include various minor dental treatment like cosmetic treatment, dental implants, dentures, restorative care, teeth cleaning etc.