![the tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine the tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine](https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/2021/fighting-fungal-infect.jpg)
- #THE TINY BALLS OF FAT THAT COULD REVOLUTIONIZE MEDICINE HOW TO#
- #THE TINY BALLS OF FAT THAT COULD REVOLUTIONIZE MEDICINE SKIN#
- #THE TINY BALLS OF FAT THAT COULD REVOLUTIONIZE MEDICINE TRIAL#
They collected skin samples from people ranging in age from 0 to 89 and generated neurons from each. The method skips the typical intermediate step of reprogramming the skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). To make this discovery, the team applied a technique they devised back in 2015 which directly converts skin cells into brain cells, aka neurons. Salk Institute researchers published results this week that shed new light on why the brains of older individuals may be more prone to neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. What other disease areas would you like us to discuss? We plan to have these Ask the Expert shows on a regular basis so let us know by commenting here or emailing us at cells’ energy “factories” may be to blame for age-related disease You can watch it on-demand on our Facebook Page. And Kevin McCormack, CIRM’s Senior Director of Public Communications, moderated the discussion.ĭid you miss the Facebook Live event? Not to worry. She suffered a devastating stroke several years ago and made a remarkable recovery after getting a stem cell therapy. Steinberg’s, also joined the live broadcast. Lila Collins, PhD, a Senior Science Officer here at CIRM, provided a big picture overview of the latest progress in stem cell therapies for stroke.
#THE TINY BALLS OF FAT THAT COULD REVOLUTIONIZE MEDICINE TRIAL#
Gary Steinberg, MD, PhD, the Chair of Neurosurgery at Stanford University, who talked about promising clinical trial results testing a stem cell-based treatment for stroke. Panelists included (from top left going clockwise): Sonia Coontz, Kevin McCormack, Gary Steinberg, MD, PhD and Lila Collins, PhD. Source: gizmodo.Screen shot of yesterday’s Facebook Live event. “No electric wires would be needed, so we could put many on a small chip,” said Baumberg. In the short term, the Cambridge team is tackling the far simpler goal of making tiny light-controlled pumps and valves for better microfluidic chips-the sort used in diagnostic kits and biosensors. “It is like a ruler, on the nanometer scale.”Īs for real-world applications, the ANTs could indeed power tiny nanobots someday for things like targeted drug delivery or robotic surgery. “The gold is nice because it gives us a color, which can be used to infer the separation of the nanopartices,” Baumberg told Gizmodo. While the prototype device uses gold nanoparticles, any dense metal could be used, including silver, nickel, or copper.
#THE TINY BALLS OF FAT THAT COULD REVOLUTIONIZE MEDICINE HOW TO#
But to make a bona fide actuator, the researchers need to figure out how to focus the forces-which currently push in every direction-into something more akin to a piston in steam engine. The ANTs convert energy from the molecular attraction between heavy metal particles into elastic energy to create a kind of nano-spring-a true transducer.
![the tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine the tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/d4Cy16uOdLM/sddefault.jpg)
Geckos are able to scale walls so easily thanks to billions of tiny hair-like structures on the bottoms of their feet that can sense those forces. These forces are usually not significant in our everyday lives, but very small micro- and nano-scales they are tremendous. That explosive effect is due to so-called Van der Waals forces between molecules. “We have hundreds of gold balls flying apart in a millionth of a second when water molecules inflate the polymers around them,” he said in a statement. Lead author Tao Ding likened the effect to an explosion.
![the tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine the tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-iKbcLeI_4G4/TI3kJ1gvBJI/AAAAAAAAGBo/KrcBEfE9wBQ/s512/Karate%252520PEPI%252520Blumenau%252520dandee.com.br%252520%252528348%252529.jpg)
This stores elastic energy as the gold nanoparticles are smushed together into tight clusters.Īs the device cools, the gel will re-absorb water to expand just as quickly, releasing that stored energy to push the gold nanoparticles apart with tremendous force. The polymer gel responds by expelling all its water in a fraction of a second and collapsing, much like coiling a spring. The gel is heated by zapping it with a laser. At the heart of the device are lots of charged gold nanoparticles, held together by a polymer gel that responds to changes in temperature. Like real ants, these nano engines can produce very large forces relative to their weight, according to lead researcher Jeremy Baumberg.
![the tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine the tiny balls of fat that could revolutionize medicine](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-QAKhWHwGeCA/TI3kGjAbK_I/AAAAAAAAGA8/aWdkL1fh8QI/s512/PICT0847.jpg)
Now scientists at the University of Cambridge have built the world’s tiniest engines, powered by light, as described in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.ĭubbed “ANTs” (for actuating nano transducers), these itsy-bitsy devices could one day realize the vision of the 1966 classic film Fantastic Voyage, in which a miniaturized submarine crew travel through the body of an injured scientist to repair a blood clot in his brain-except there would be no need for shrunken human pilots. Nanomachines could revolutionize technology and modern medicine, if only we had viable power sources to make them move where we wanted them to go.