Medicine
fromNature
11 hours agoPersonalized CRISPR therapies could soon reach thousands - here's how
FDA proposed a 'plausible mechanism pathway' to enhance development of personalized genetic therapies for rare disorders.
While some other creatures, most notably salamanders and starfish, can regenerate entire limbs, mammals don't have this evolutionary superpower. The big question is: Why are mammals limited?
The ALEX RS is a bilateral upper-limb exoskeleton designed for post-stroke rehabilitation, covering 92% of the human arm's natural range of motion and is CE certified as a Class IIa medical device.
WINT Design Lab envisions regenerative futures through devices and biotextiles that allow humans to connect with their bodies more and free themselves from fossil materials that harm them and the environment.
Small organic molecules underpin modern life, from medicines and flavours to advanced materials. Much of this functional diversity comes from shape: modest changes in a molecule's 3D structure can completely change its properties.
The body of the robotic fingers is built from polyglycerol sebacate, a synthetic elastomer made from glycerol and sebacic acid. Glycerol is a byproduct of biodiesel production while sebacic acid is derived from castor oil, and both of them are plant-based. Polyglycerol sebacate is safe since it is already used in medical implants because the body can absorb it without a toxic response.
According to the outlet SlashGear, the neighborhood encompasses five 1,000-square-foot houses just north of Sacramento. Each domicile is produced by a hulking concrete printer worth about $1.5 million, which took about 24 days to spit out the first house. In the future, 4Dify expects the whole process to take about 10 days, but that isn't what's astonishing about the Yuba County neighborhood - it's the price tag.
Traditional construction is often marked by inefficiencies like material waste, labor intensity, and long project timelines that push up the final cost per square foot. In contrast, 3D printing, or Additive Manufacturing in Construction (AMC), introduces a fundamentally different approach, shifting from subtractive to additive building processes. Its central ambition is to make housing more accessible by lowering material and labor costs while enabling faster delivery of structurally sound, architecturally considered homes.
That's today's project. In this article, I'll show you how I started with a picture of me, used some intermediate AI, and turned it into a physical 3D plastic me figurine. Do I need a me figurine? No. Is it cool? Yeah. Does it show off another AI capability? Yep. I'll be honest. I didn't expect my editor to sign off on this pitch.
The A.GR.TI cranks are a three-piece system - two separate titanium crank arms bonded to an aluminum spindle - built using the same 3D printers Atherton uses for their frame lugs. The inside of each arm features a ribbed, hollow lattice structure engineered to maximize stiffness while shedding grams.
Mexico's construction sector faces significant environmental and social challenges. The widespread use of carbon-intensive materials has positioned the industry as a major contributor to national COâ‚‚ emissions. At the same time, construction labor conditions remain unstable, with limited access to technical training and high occupational risk. CORNCRETL, developed by MANUFACTURA, proposes a circular material strategy that addresses both environmental impact and production models within the building industry.
I am running. Ahead lie endless mangrove swamps, behind the green-blue waters of the Caribbean. My mind is rising away from my lurching body, which is on a treadmill and attached to a beeping machine by wires and tubes. Nurses circle. The gradient increases, as does the speed. Dignity slips away as my body fights for breath. They're after my "VO2 max", the amount of oxygen my body can absorb during my maximum capacity for exercise.
The system, tested in prototype form by NPR at the company's headquarters, consists of fairly standard-looking sneakers with a carbon fiber plate running through the soles. These sneakers are attached at the back to close-fitting, 3D-printed titanium leg shells that cinch to the calves. The battery-powered contraptions, containing complex motors, sensors and circuitry, weigh a couple of pounds and look like something out of Terminator or RoboCop.
This corn-based construction material was made by Manufactura, a Mexican sustainable materials company, and it imagines a second life for waste from the most widely produced grain in the world. The project started as an invitation by chef Jorge Armando, the founder of catering brand Taco Kween Berlin, to find ways he could reintegrate waste generated by his taqueria into architecture. A team led by designer Dinorah Schulte created corncretl during a residency last year in Massa Lombarda, Italy.
Now, researchers have created an artificial-intelligence system that vastly simplifies and accelerates the process of chemical synthesis. The system, which is called MOSAIC and is described in a study published in Nature on 19 January, recommended conditions that researchers were able to use to generate 35 compounds with the potential to become products like pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals or cosmetics without needing to do any further trawling or tweaking.
An exoskeleton is a relatively new class of wearable device designed to enhance, support, or assist human movement, strength, posture, or even physical activity. The main piece goes around your waist like a belt, and from it, a pair of hinged, mechanized splints extend down over the hips to strap onto each thigh, where they provide some robotic assistance to normal movements like walking, running, or squatting.
Before printing, the Bambu also sweeps and levels the bed in a grid, and warns you if it hits any obstructions like leftover supports or an errant bed scraper. I've checked out several printers with an auto-level before, but they were slower, and usually required a second check by hand before actually hitting go. I haven't had to adjust anything on the P1S in the month or so I've been using it, with the printer handling the initial setup, regular re-leveling, and nozzle cleaning.
Bracesys sidesteps all these limitations with an adjustable framework of segmented units, articulating connectors, and tension dials. The entire system weighs just 150 grams and folds flat into an envelope, yet provides rigid support comparable to traditional casts. More remarkably, clinicians can customize it to each patient's anatomy in real time, adjusting the fit as swelling decreases and healing progresses.
A 33-year-old man survived for 48 hours without his lungs, after a medical team replaced the organs with an external artificial-lung system that it developed to keep him alive until he could receive a double lung transplant. There have been cases in which people have had their lungs removed and been connected to an external device to maintain oxygen levels.
A study led by Stanford Medicine researchers has found that an injection blocking a protein linked to aging can reverse the natural loss of knee cartilage in older mice. The same treatment also stopped arthritis from developing after knee injuries that resemble ACL tears, which are common among athletes and recreational exercisers. Researchers note that an oral version of the treatment is already being tested in clinical trials aimed at treating age-related muscle weakness.
When surgeons removed a 33-year-old woman's right lung as part of her cancer treatment in 1995, they expected a dramatic and permanent reduction in her breathing power. But that's not what happened. Instead, her remaining lung pulled off a trick that scientists had long thought impossible in humans: it grew new tissue, and lots of it. Over the next 15 years, her left lung compensated for the loss of its partner by nearly doubling in volume and growing millions of new air sacs, called alveoli.