#wyss institute

[rodgermalcolmmitchell]

Consciousness is not "conscious." It's sensing, and everything senses.

In December, we published “What is consciousness? The hard problem. And the “sensingness” solution.” The conclusion was that consciousness is hard to define because we make false assumptions about it. One assumption is that consciousness is a mystical reality concerning a brain’s self-awareness. Or, we assume consciousness is a state occupied only by living creatures, animals only, “higher”…

[materialsscienceandengineering]

3D-printed blood vessels bring artificial organs closer to reality

Growing functional human organs outside the body is a long-sought "holy grail" of organ transplantation medicine that remains elusive. New research from Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) brings that quest one big step closer to completion. A team of scientists has created a new method to 3D-print vascular networks that consist of interconnected blood vessels possessing a distinct "shell" of smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells surrounding a hollow "core" through which fluid can flow, embedded inside a human cardiac tissue. This vascular architecture closely mimics that of naturally occurring blood vessels and represents significant progress toward being able to manufacture implantable human organs.

Read more.

[mindblowingscience]

A species of spider lives its entire life underwater, despite having lungs that can only breathe atmospheric oxygen. How does it do it? This spider, known as the Argyroneta aquatica, has millions of rough, water-repellent hairs that trap air around its body, creating an oxygen reservoir and acting as a barrier between the spider's lungs and the water. This thin layer of air is called a plastron and for decades, material scientists have been trying to harness its protective effects. Doing so could lead to underwater superhydrophobic surfaces able to prevent corrosion, bacterial growth, the adhesion of marine organisms, chemical fouling, and other deleterious effects of liquid on surfaces. But plastrons have proved highly unstable under water, keeping surfaces dry for only a matter of hours in the lab. Now, a team of researchers led by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, and Aalto University in Finland have developed a superhydrophobic surface with a stable plastron that can last for months under water.

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[mezzopieno-news]

CREATE LE BIO-CELLULE ROBOT CHE RIPARANO IL CORPO

I ricercatori della Tufts University e del Wyss Institute di Harvard hanno creato minuscoli robot biologici da cellule tracheali umane, che possono muoversi autonomamente e che incoraggiano la crescita dei neuroni nelle aree danneggiate del corpo, senza dover essere geneticamente modificati.

I robot multicellulari, chiamati Anthrobots, sono della larghezza di un capello umano, si auto-assemblano e hanno dimostrato di avere un notevole effetto curativo su altre cellule. L’invenzione, pubblicata sulla rivista scientifica internazionale Advanced Science, è un punto di partenza per la visione dei ricercatori di utilizzare i bio robot come nuovi strumenti terapeutici per la rigenerazione, la guarigione e il trattamento delle malattie.

I ricercatori hanno scoperto come dare alle cellule umane la possibilità di riavviarsi e di trovare modi per creare nuove strutture e compiti. “Volevamo sondare cosa possono fare le cellule oltre a creare caratteristiche predefinite nel corpo”, ha detto G. Gumuskaya membro del gruppo di scienziati responsabile dell’invenzione. “Riprogrammando le interazioni tra le cellule si possono creare nuove strutture multicellulari, analogamente al modo in cui pietra e mattoni possono essere disposti in diversi elementi strutturali come muri, archi o colonne” scrive nella pubblicazione. I biologi hanno scoperto che non solo le cellule possono creare nuove forme multicellulari ma che possono muoversi in modi diversi su una superficie di neuroni umani e stimolarne una nuova crescita, colmando le lacune causate da un loro danneggiamento. “È affascinante e del tutto inaspettato per normali cellule tracheali, senza modificare il loro DNA” ha affermato M. Levin della Tufts.

___________________

Fonte: Advanced science

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[frank-olivier]

The Synthbiosis Vision: How Biology and Technology are Creating a New Future

Michael Levin, distinguished professor of biology at Tufts University and fellow at Harvard's Wyss Institute, presented his groundbreaking work in the emerging field of diverse intelligence. He discussed his innovative approaches to understanding and communicating with the unconventional intelligence of cells, tissues, and biological robots. This groundbreaking research led to new breakthroughs in regenerative medicine, cancer treatment, and bioengineering, as well as new insights into the mechanisms of evolution and the nature of embodied minds. Levin also introduced the concept of "freedom of embodiment," a visionary idea that allowed us to imagine a future in which AI is just one of many new forms of life and intelligence, and the boundaries between humans, machines, and nature become increasingly blurred.

Embodied Minds: Discovering Diverse Intelligence Through the Lens of Biomedicine (Dr. Michael Levin, October 2024)

Elena Sergeeva: Applications of AI in human longevity and anti-aging research (Jay Richards, COSM, 2023)

Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon look at the different forms of memory, from episodic memory to habits, and explore how memory is linked to emotions and place. Drawing on the wisdom of Aristotle to A.N. Whitehead, they examine the connection between memory and these aspects. Rupert's research led to the development of the theory of morphic fields, which states that all self-organizing systems exist within these fields. The conversation also touches on Indian concepts of memory and their relationship to ideas of reincarnation, as well as the possibility that everything that exists exists in some form in the memory of God.

How does Memory work? (Rupert Sheldrake, September 2024)

Open Q&A with Michael Levin & Bernardo Kastrup (Adventures in Awareness, October 2024)

Thursday, October 17, 2024

[aci25]

New Breakthrough in Energy Storage – MIT Engineers Create Supercapacitor out of Ancient Materials

MIT engineers have created a “supercapacitor” made of ancient, abundant materials, that can store large amounts of energy. Made of just cement, water, and carbon black (which resembles powdered charcoal), the device could form the basis for inexpensive systems that store intermittently renewable energy, such as solar or wind energy. Credit: Image courtesy of Franz-Josef Ulm, Admir Masic, and Yang-Shao Horn

Constructed from cement, carbon black, and water, the device holds the potential to offer affordable and scalable energy storage for renewable energy sources.

Two of humanity’s most ubiquitous historical materials, cement and carbon black (which resembles very fine charcoal), may form the basis for a novel, low-cost energy storage system, according to a new study. The technology could facilitate the use of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and tidal power by allowing energy networks to remain stable despite fluctuations in renewable energy supply. 

The two materials, the researchers found, can be combined with water to make a supercapacitor — an alternative to batteries — that could provide storage of electrical energy. As an example, the MIT researchers who developed the system say that their supercapacitor could eventually be incorporated into the concrete foundation of a house, where it could store a full day’s worth of energy while adding little (or no) to the cost of the foundation and still providing the needed structural strength. The researchers also envision a concrete roadway that could provide contactless recharging for electric cars as they travel over that road.

The simple but innovative technology is described in a recent paper published in the journal PNAS, in a paper by MIT professors Franz-Josef Ulm, Admir Masic, and Yang-Shao Horn, and four others at MIT and at the Wyss Institute.

Capacitors are in principle very simple devices, consisting of two electrically conductive plates immersed in an electrolyte and separated by a membrane. When a voltage is applied across the capacitor, positively charged ions from the electrolyte accumulate on the negatively charged plate, while the positively charged plate accumulates negatively charged ions. Since the membrane in between the plates blocks charged ions from migrating across, this separation of charges creates an electric field between the plates, and the capacitor becomes charged. The two plates can maintain this pair of charges for a long time and then deliver them very quickly when needed. Supercapacitors are simply capacitors that can store exceptionally large charges.

The amount of power a capacitor can store depends on the total surface area of its conductive plates. The key to the new supercapacitors developed by this team comes from a method of producing a cement-based material with an extremely high internal surface area due to a dense, interconnected network of conductive material within its bulk volume. The researchers achieved this by introducing carbon black — which is highly conductive — into a concrete mixture along with cement powder and water, and letting it cure. The water naturally forms a branching network of openings within the structure as it reacts with cement, and the carbon migrates into these spaces to make wire-like structures within the hardened cement.

These structures have a fractal-like structure, with larger branches sprouting smaller branches, and those sprouting even smaller branchlets, and so on, ending up with an extremely large surface area within the confines of a relatively small volume. The material is then soaked in a standard electrolyte material, such as potassium chloride, a kind of salt, which provides the charged particles that accumulate on the carbon structures. Two electrodes made of this material, separated by a thin space or an insulating layer, form a very powerful supercapacitor, the researchers found.

Since the new “supercapacitor” concrete would retain its strength, a house with a foundation made of this material could store a day’s worth of energy produced by solar panels or windmills, and allow it to be used whenever it’s needed. Credit: Image courtesy of Franz-Josef Ulm, Admir Masic, and Yang-Shao Horn

The two plates of the capacitor function just like the two poles of a rechargeable battery of equivalent voltage: When connected to a source of electricity, as with a battery, energy gets stored in the plates, and then when connected to a load, the electrical current flows back out to provide power.

“The material is fascinating,” Masic says, “because you have the most-used manmade material in the world, cement, that is combined with carbon black, that is a well-known historical material — the Dead Sea Scrolls were written with it. You have these at least two-millennia-old materials that when you combine them in a specific manner you come up with a conductive nanocomposite, and that’s when things get really interesting.”

As the mixture sets and cures, he says, “The water is systematically consumed through cement hydration reactions, and this hydration fundamentally affects nanoparticles of carbon because they are hydrophobic (water repelling).” As the mixture evolves, “the carbon black is self-assembling into a connected conductive wire,” he says. The process is easily reproducible, with materials that are inexpensive and readily available anywhere in the world. And the amount of carbon needed is very small — as little as 3 percent by volume of the mix — to achieve a percolated carbon network, Masic says.

Supercapacitors made of this material have great potential to aid in the world’s transition to renewable energy, Ulm says. The principal sources of emissions-free energy, wind, solar, and tidal power, all produce their output at variable times that often do not correspond to the peaks in electricity usage, so ways of storing that power are essential. “There is a huge need for big energy storage,” he says, and existing batteries are too expensive and mostly rely on materials such as lithium, whose supply is limited, so cheaper alternatives are badly needed. “That’s where our technology is extremely promising, because cement is ubiquitous,” Ulm says.

The team calculated that a block of nanocarbon-black-doped concrete that is 45 cubic meters (or yards) in size — equivalent to a cube about 3.5 meters across — would have enough capacity to store about 10 kilowatt-hours of energy, which is considered the average daily electricity usage for a household. Since the concrete would retain its strength, a house with a foundation made of this material could store a day’s worth of energy produced by solar panels or windmills and allow it to be used whenever it’s needed. And, supercapacitors can be charged and discharged much more rapidly than batteries.

After a series of tests used to determine the most effective ratios of cement, carbon black, and water, the team demonstrated the process by making small supercapacitors, about the size of some button-cell batteries, about 1 centimeter across and 1 millimeter thick, that could each be charged to 1 volt, comparable to a 1-volt battery. They then connected three of these to demonstrate their ability to light up a 3-volt light-emitting diode (LED). Having proved the principle, they now plan to build a series of larger versions, starting with ones about the size of a typical 12-volt car battery, then working up to a 45-cubic-meter version to demonstrate its ability to store a house-worth of power.

There is a tradeoff between the storage capacity of the material and its structural strength, they found. By adding more carbon black, the resulting supercapacitor can store more energy, but the concrete is slightly weaker, and this could be useful for applications where the concrete is not playing a structural role or where the full strength-potential of concrete is not required. For applications such as a foundation, or structural elements of the base of a wind turbine, the “sweet spot” is around 10 percent carbon black in the mix, they found.

Another potential application for carbon-cement supercapacitors is for building concrete roadways that could store energy produced by solar panels alongside the road and then deliver that energy to electric vehicles traveling along the road using the same kind of technology used for wirelessly rechargeable phones. A related type of car-recharging system is already being developed by companies in Germany and the Netherlands, but using standard batteries for storage.

Initial uses of the technology might be for isolated homes or buildings or shelters far from grid power, which could be powered by solar panels attached to the cement supercapacitors, the researchers say. 

Ulm says that the system is very scalable, as the energy-storage capacity is a direct function of the volume of the electrodes. “You can go from 1-millimeter-thick electrodes to 1-meter-thick electrodes, and by doing so basically you can scale the energy storage capacity from lighting an LED for a few seconds, to powering a whole house,” he says.

Depending on the properties desired for a given application, the system could be tuned by adjusting the mixture. For a vehicle-charging road, very fast charging and discharging rates would be needed, while for powering a home “you have the whole day to charge it up,” so slower-charging material could be used, Ulm says.

“So, it’s really a multifunctional material,” he adds. Besides its ability to store energy in the form of supercapacitors, the same kind of concrete mixture can be used as a heating system, by simply applying electricity to the carbon-laced concrete.

Ulm sees this as “a new way of looking toward the future of concrete as part of the energy transition.”

Reference: “Carbon–cement supercapacitors as a scalable bulk energy storage solution” by Nicolas Chanut, Damian Stefaniuk, James C. Weaver, Yunguang Zhu, Yang Shao-Horn, Admir Masic and Franz-Josef Ulm, 31 July 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2304318120

The research team also included postdocs Nicolas Chanut and Damian Stefaniuk at MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, James Weaver at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and Yunguang Zhu in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. The work was supported by the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, with sponsorship by the Concrete Advancement Foundation.

Source: scitechdaily.com

[bpod-bpod]

Hidden Eggs

People describe laptops as ‘black boxes’, with their concealed inner workings hard to understand and impossible to repair. The body is not much different. Our understanding of some essential parts and processes is limited by how hard they are to access and observe. To better understand ovaries, where eggs are formed, researchers have generated artificial replicas in the lab from mouse stem cells – starter cells that can develop into other types such as key ovary components germ cells, which go on to form eggs, and granulosa cells, which support those eggs. Generating granulosa cells from human material has proven harder, but this picture shows the results of a successful attempt (granulosa-like cells in green). With the generated germ and granulosa cells alongside each other, ovary structures began to form, which will provide an easily-accessed testing ground and give a glimpse inside the black box, revealing more secrets of fertility.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Merrick D Pierson Smela and Christian C Kramme, and colleagues

Wyss Institute, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, February 2023

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[genesisnanotech]

DNA Nanotechnology Tools: From Design to Applications: Current Opportunities and Collaborations - Wyss Institute - Harvard University

DNA Nanotechnology Tools: From Design to Applications: Current Opportunities and Collaborations – Wyss Institute – Harvard University

Suite of DNA nanotechnology devices engineered to overcome specific bottlenecks in the development of new therapies, diagnostics, and understanding of molecular structures Lead Inventors William Shih Wesley Wong Advantages DNA as building blocks Broad applications Low cost with big potential DNA nanostructures with their potential for cell and tissue permeability, biocompatibility, and…

[jeffreyrobertpalinjr]

When did the first biological ai first exist? When did the first xenobots first exist?

According to current scientific understanding, there is no widely recognized "biological AI" that exists today, meaning a fully functional artificial intelligence system built using biological components; however, recent research with "xenobots" - microscopic robots made from frog cells - could be considered a step towards this concept, with scientists demonstrating their ability to self-replicate, marking a significant development in the field of bio-inspired robotics.

The first xenobots were created and unveiled in 2020. Explanation: Scientists at the University of Vermont, Tufts University, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University developed these "living robots" made from frog stem cells, marking the first time such a biological machine was constructed.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

A species of spider lives its entire life underwater, despite having lungs that can only breathe atmospheric oxygen. How does it do it? This spider, known as the Argyroneta aquatica, has millions of rough, water-repellent hairs that trap air around its body, creating an oxygen reservoir and acting as a barrier between the spider's lungs and the water. This thin layer of air is called a plastron and for decades, material scientists have been trying to harness its protective effects. Doing so could lead to underwater superhydrophobic surfaces able to prevent corrosion, bacterial growth, the adhesion of marine organisms, chemical fouling, and other deleterious effects of liquid on surfaces. But plastrons have proved highly unstable under water, keeping surfaces dry for only a matter of hours in the lab. Now, a team of researchers led by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, and Aalto University in Finland have developed a superhydrophobic surface with a stable plastron that can last for months under water. The team's general strategy to create long-lasting underwater superhydrophobic surfaces, which repel blood and drastically reduce or prevent the adhesion of bacterial and marine organisms such as barnacles and mussels, opens a range of applications in biomedicine and industry.

Read more.

[tryingtounderstandbrainheart]

I so hope this is going to work! The end of plastics as a threat? Please work.

[hypeeconomy]

Mechanising the fields: The role of robotics in propelling development in agriculture

An extensive study of the sequence of incidents that happened in the recent past which had AI as the subject under scrutiny signalled one thing in unison, and that is that AI is essentially bad. Not because it was programmed to be a villain, but because humans manoeuvred it in such a way that it has involved itself more with mis-deeds than good. However, its character arc is not linear because the 2023 edition of the ‘AI for Good’ Global Summit that took place this July proved that AI is a domain with many faces, especially when it comes down to the use of AI in the field of agriculture. 

This global summit provided a platform for over 30 cutting-edge robots to exhibit their range of skills which served as a testament for the potential of autonomous robots to spearhead progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal. Amidst the participants were robots that could be used in agriculture who displayed the importance of using high-technology in the field of agriculture. What it also showcased is how agriculture serves as a breeding ground for new technological developments and also as a key area of application of technologies that were developed somewhere else.

Robots and agriculture, a collaboration that we didn’t know we needed

The utilisation of AI in the agriculture market is expected to grow from US$ 1.7 billion in 2023 to US$4.7 billion by 2028. Despite this initiative being in its embryonic stage, these numbers do not come as a surprise especially because in a world where the demand for food is steadily increasing, agriculture is turning to innovative solutions, primarily robots, to optimise farming operations. The advanced machines that come into play are becoming the new workforce in agriculture and they have the ability to perform different tasks such as planting, irrigation, pest control, and soil analysis. Automating the field of agriculture can reap benefits such as higher productivity, lower labour expenses, and reduced reliance on harmful chemicals. 

Farmers far and wide have already begun to embrace technology, including drones and remote-controlled grass and scrub cutting machines to improve productivity and minimise downtime and monitor their livestock with efficiency. For instance, in hilly regions, these robotic machines are particularly valuable as they can access and cultivate land that was previously unusable. Additionally, electric farm and factory robots with interchangeable tools are being developed, allowing for precise soil management minus the negative impacts of heavy tractors compacting wet soil. Soft robotic grasping technologies and sensors are helping out in the production of delicate crops giving farmers and consumers both something to look forward to. Moreover, soft robotics employs gentle methods like rubber cups or small bean bags to delicately grasp and harvest high-value produce like peaches and raspberries from plants without causing any  form of damage. Thus, preserving the quality of such delicate crops. 

Robots that are used in agri-tech are as cool as ones you see in ‘The Transformers’

Optimus Prime may be a master in hand-to-hand combat and a prodigy in parkour, but RoboBees (which can take-off vertically, hover and steer) could very well outdo it in terms of efficiency. Sarah Murray writing for The Financial Times about ‘Farm Robots Poised For Growth as Labour Costs Rise’ explains how RoboBees; developed by researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, one of the most recent initiatives and is still in its nascent state, has the potential of eventually performing tasks such as crop pollination and environmental monitoring.

Currently, RoboBees are confined to laboratory settings, and their widespread commercial use in agriculture is still a distant prospect. These laboratory settings are spaces such as polytunnels and glasshouses where there is an absence of rain and mud. However, the ongoing progress in technology, coupled with challenges related to labour shortages, is making robots increasingly economically feasible for farm applications. This suggests that as technology continues to advance and labour availability remains a concern, the adoption of robots in agriculture may become a more realistic and practical solution in the near future. Furthermore, the fact that most of these robots are tailor-made and are often streamlined to function on a more plant-by-plant approach makes them even more attractive. For instance, ‘FarmWise’, a company based in California, has created a weeding robot that prioritises computer vision and artificial intelligence. This innovative robot can differentiate between weeds and crops, resulting in reduced labour expenses for farmers and allowing them to reduce their herbicide usage. 

Another innovation that was exhibited at the ‘AI for Good’ Global Summit is ‘Digital Farm Hand’: a robotic platform specifically designed for smallholder farms, created by University of Sydney’s Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR). This robot is programmed in a way that it could detect and identify objects within its environment, including plants and weeds. Owing to a capability of that scale, it can perform various tasks such as field mapping and gathering data on crop health and yield. But the feature which triumphs amidst all the ones it possesses is its capacity to transform the farming industry. By automating the process of recognising and removing weeds, this robot has the potential to decrease the dependence on harmful chemicals by farmers. This leads to cost savings and contributes to a safer and healthier environment for all parties who are shareholders in agriculture. 

But do these robots live up to their brand image?

The potential that robots have cannot be denied. However it is worth highlighting that whether or not this potential will be discovered is up to the economic and political choices that the agricultural industry makes. For instance, a concern that is associated with the widespread adoption of agricultural robots is, when the costs of applying pesticides are diminished due to automation, it might lead to increased pesticide usage rather than a reduction, which could have adverse environmental and health implications. In addition, the use of more potent and hazardous pesticides might become more prevalent without human oversight. If heavier robots replace human workers, this could exacerbate existing issues related to soil compaction caused by the use of heavy machinery in farming, potentially harming the quality of the soil. The concerns don’t end there. The standardisation of food items to accommodate robotic automation may create a consumer expectation for perfectly uniform produce. This expectation could result in increased food wastage as fewer items meet these stringent criteria for sale, even if they are perfectly safe and nutritious to consume.

Apart from that, a major issue that has many small farm owners worried is that most efficient and high quality robots that are manufactured are available at extremely high costs. This will automatically gate keep them from gaining access to machinery that can actually make a change. This scenario can change if smaller, more advanced and affordable mobile robots become available for smaller farms. However, currently, most manufacturers of farm equipment are mainly focused on automating their large and more expensive products. This means that larger agricultural producers are the ones who will have a competitive advantage, as they can harness the cost savings and productivity benefits of robots. It is vital that the decisions that are made with regards to integrating robotics into agriculture are done wisely and done in a way that has everyone’s best interest at heart. The minute that it is politicised, it will stray away from the path that leads to achieving the goal of using robotics for SDGs. It will eventually become an antithesis to what experts recognise as measures used to ensure food security and combat climate change. 

[sunaleisocial]

New treatment could reverse hair loss caused by an autoimmune skin disease

New Post has been published on https://sunalei.org/news/new-treatment-could-reverse-hair-loss-caused-by-an-autoimmune-skin-disease/

New treatment could reverse hair loss caused by an autoimmune skin disease

Researchers at MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School have developed a potential new treatment for alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss and affects people of all ages, including children.

For most patients with this type of hair loss, there is no effective treatment. The team developed a microneedle patch that can be painlessly applied to the scalp and releases drugs that help to rebalance the immune response at the site, halting the autoimmune attack.

In a study of mice, the researchers found that this treatment allowed hair to regrow and dramatically reduced inflammation at the treatment site, while avoiding systemic immune effects elsewhere in the body. This strategy could also be adapted to treat other autoimmune skin diseases such as vitiligo, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis, the researchers say.

“This innovative approach marks a paradigm shift. Rather than suppressing the immune system, we’re now focusing on regulating it precisely at the site of antigen encounter to generate immune tolerance,” says Natalie Artzi, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an associate faculty member at the Wyss Institute of Harvard University.

Artzi and Jamil R. Azzi, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, are the senior authors of the new study, which appears in the journal Advanced Materials. Nour Younis, a Brigham and Women’s postdoc, and Nuria Puigmal, a Brigham and Women’s postdoc and former MIT research affiliate, are the lead authors of the paper.

The researchers are now working on launching a company to further develop the technology, led by Puigmal, who was recently awarded a Harvard Business School Blavatnik Fellowship.

Direct delivery

Alopecia areata, which affects more than 6 million Americans, occurs when the body’s own T cells attack hair follicles, leading the hair to fall out. The only treatment available to most patients — injections of immunosuppressant steroids into the scalp — is painful and patients often can’t tolerate it.

Some patients with alopecia areata and other autoimmune skin diseases can also be treated with immunosuppressant drugs that are given orally, but these drugs lead to widespread suppression of the immune system, which can have adverse side effects.

“This approach silences the entire immune system, offering relief from inflammation symptoms but leading to frequent recurrences. Moreover, it increases susceptibility to infections, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer,” Artzi says.

A few years ago, at a working group meeting in Washington, Artzi happened to be seated next to Azzi (the seating was alphabetical), an immunologist and transplant physican who was seeking new ways to deliver drugs directly to the skin to treat skin-related diseases.

Their conversation led to a new collaboration, and the two labs joined forces to work on a microneedle patch to deliver drugs to the skin. In 2021, they reported that such a patch can be used to prevent rejection following skin transplant. In the new study, they began applying this approach to autoimmune skin disorders.

“The skin is the only organ in our body that we can see and touch, and yet when it comes to drug delivery to the skin, we revert to systemic administration. We saw great potential in utilizing the microneedle patch to reprogram the immune system locally,” Azzi says.

The microneedle patches used in this study are made from hyaluronic acid crosslinked with polyethylene glycol (PEG), both of which are biocompatible and commonly used in medical applications. With this delivery method, drugs can pass through the tough outer layer of the epidermis, which can’t be penetrated by creams applied to the skin.

“This polymer formulation allows us to create highly durable needles capable of effectively penetrating the skin. Additionally, it gives us the flexibility to incorporate any desired drug,” Artzi says. For this study, the researchers loaded the patches with a combination of the cytokines IL-2 and CCL-22. Together, these immune molecules help to recruit regulatory T cells, which proliferate and help to tamp down inflammation. These cells also help the immune system learn to recognize that hair follicles are not foreign antigens, so that it will stop attacking them.

Hair regrowth

The researchers found that mice treated with this patch every other day for three weeks had many more regulatory T cells present at the site, along with a reduction in inflammation. Hair was able to regrow at those sites, and this growth was maintained for several weeks after the treatment ended. In these mice, there were no changes in the levels of regulatory T cells in the spleen or lymph nodes, suggesting that the treatment affected only the site where the patch was applied.

In another set of experiments, the researchers grafted human skin onto mice with a humanized immune system. In these mice, the microneedle treatment also induced proliferation of regulatory T cells and a reduction in inflammation.

The researchers designed the microneedle patches so that after releasing their drug payload, they can also collect samples that could be used to monitor the progress of the treatment. Hyaluronic acid causes the needles to swell about tenfold after entering the skin, which allows them to absorb interstitial fluid containing biomolecules and immune cells from the skin.

Following patch removal, researchers can analyze samples to measure levels of regulatory T cells and inflammation markers. This could prove valuable for monitoring future patients who may undergo this treatment.

The researchers now plan to further develop this approach for treating alopecia, and to expand into other autoimmune skin diseases.

The research was funded by the Ignite Fund and Shark Tank Fund awards from the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

[jcmarchi]

New treatment could reverse hair loss caused by an autoimmune skin disease

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/new-treatment-could-reverse-hair-loss-caused-by-an-autoimmune-skin-disease/

New treatment could reverse hair loss caused by an autoimmune skin disease

Researchers at MIT, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School have developed a potential new treatment for alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss and affects people of all ages, including children.

For most patients with this type of hair loss, there is no effective treatment. The team developed a microneedle patch that can be painlessly applied to the scalp and releases drugs that help to rebalance the immune response at the site, halting the autoimmune attack.

In a study of mice, the researchers found that this treatment allowed hair to regrow and dramatically reduced inflammation at the treatment site, while avoiding systemic immune effects elsewhere in the body. This strategy could also be adapted to treat other autoimmune skin diseases such as vitiligo, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis, the researchers say.

“This innovative approach marks a paradigm shift. Rather than suppressing the immune system, we’re now focusing on regulating it precisely at the site of antigen encounter to generate immune tolerance,” says Natalie Artzi, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an associate faculty member at the Wyss Institute of Harvard University.

Artzi and Jamil R. Azzi, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, are the senior authors of the new study, which appears in the journal Advanced Materials. Nour Younis, a Brigham and Women’s postdoc, and Nuria Puigmal, a Brigham and Women’s postdoc and former MIT research affiliate, are the lead authors of the paper.

The researchers are now working on launching a company to further develop the technology, led by Puigmal, who was recently awarded a Harvard Business School Blavatnik Fellowship.

Direct delivery

Alopecia areata, which affects more than 6 million Americans, occurs when the body’s own T cells attack hair follicles, leading the hair to fall out. The only treatment available to most patients — injections of immunosuppressant steroids into the scalp — is painful and patients often can’t tolerate it.

Some patients with alopecia areata and other autoimmune skin diseases can also be treated with immunosuppressant drugs that are given orally, but these drugs lead to widespread suppression of the immune system, which can have adverse side effects.

“This approach silences the entire immune system, offering relief from inflammation symptoms but leading to frequent recurrences. Moreover, it increases susceptibility to infections, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer,” Artzi says.

A few years ago, at a working group meeting in Washington, Artzi happened to be seated next to Azzi (the seating was alphabetical), an immunologist and transplant physican who was seeking new ways to deliver drugs directly to the skin to treat skin-related diseases.

Their conversation led to a new collaboration, and the two labs joined forces to work on a microneedle patch to deliver drugs to the skin. In 2021, they reported that such a patch can be used to prevent rejection following skin transplant. In the new study, they began applying this approach to autoimmune skin disorders.

“The skin is the only organ in our body that we can see and touch, and yet when it comes to drug delivery to the skin, we revert to systemic administration. We saw great potential in utilizing the microneedle patch to reprogram the immune system locally,” Azzi says.

The microneedle patches used in this study are made from hyaluronic acid crosslinked with polyethylene glycol (PEG), both of which are biocompatible and commonly used in medical applications. With this delivery method, drugs can pass through the tough outer layer of the epidermis, which can’t be penetrated by creams applied to the skin.

“This polymer formulation allows us to create highly durable needles capable of effectively penetrating the skin. Additionally, it gives us the flexibility to incorporate any desired drug,” Artzi says. For this study, the researchers loaded the patches with a combination of the cytokines IL-2 and CCL-22. Together, these immune molecules help to recruit regulatory T cells, which proliferate and help to tamp down inflammation. These cells also help the immune system learn to recognize that hair follicles are not foreign antigens, so that it will stop attacking them.

Hair regrowth

The researchers found that mice treated with this patch every other day for three weeks had many more regulatory T cells present at the site, along with a reduction in inflammation. Hair was able to regrow at those sites, and this growth was maintained for several weeks after the treatment ended. In these mice, there were no changes in the levels of regulatory T cells in the spleen or lymph nodes, suggesting that the treatment affected only the site where the patch was applied.

In another set of experiments, the researchers grafted human skin onto mice with a humanized immune system. In these mice, the microneedle treatment also induced proliferation of regulatory T cells and a reduction in inflammation.

The researchers designed the microneedle patches so that after releasing their drug payload, they can also collect samples that could be used to monitor the progress of the treatment. Hyaluronic acid causes the needles to swell about tenfold after entering the skin, which allows them to absorb interstitial fluid containing biomolecules and immune cells from the skin.

Following patch removal, researchers can analyze samples to measure levels of regulatory T cells and inflammation markers. This could prove valuable for monitoring future patients who may undergo this treatment.

The researchers now plan to further develop this approach for treating alopecia, and to expand into other autoimmune skin diseases.

The research was funded by the Ignite Fund and Shark Tank Fund awards from the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

[molsons112000]

But this drug the pharmaceutical companies didn't hire investigators and didn't work with law enforcement to prevent illegal use and it destroyed their market.... Because people took something that could be used in a good way to help induce deep sleep and speed up the rate of healing... Body builders used it effectively to speed up the metabolism to lose more weight while they were sleeping but also the speed up their process of healing so they can create more muscle mass..... So if done effectively it is a very good drug that hospitals can use to increase the rate of healing of patience... Now they need to tweak at a little bit so they can make it better... So that's what people don't understand see.All those pharmaceuticals they used before were good but had serious side effects. Now you can take those recipes and do further research and get rid of the side effects or minimize them seriously. Minimize them and bring back those pharmaceuticals. So a lot of those old drugs that faded away could come back but in a much better format....

Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate Toxicity

So I was explaining to these 2 Arab gentlemen. At Subway in Chicago on clyborn. That if you take this and have some very good pharmaceutical company, perfect at a little bit more minimizing or getting rid of the side effects.Then this can be very effective...

Wyss Institute at Harvard

https://wyss.harvard.edu › news

Giving old drugs new life…to save lives - Wyss Institute

Feb 17, 2022 — Repurposing existing drugs by finding new targets, delivery methods, and formulations is a promising approach to speed the development of much- ...

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Pfizer

https://www.pfizer.com › news

The Art of Creating New Medicines

Behind the Science. The Art of Creating New Medicines. Scientists are often lauded for their objectivity, persistence, and analytic thinking.

By the way, I was saying to 2 black cops that the problem with trayvon Martin and Michael Brown is the officer with Michael Brown.Let Michael get too close to him.And by doing so he could go after his weapon. Is George Zimmerman the security officer?Let travon get too close to him and he could go after his weapon. The reason you have a gun is to keep people at distance.Protects you from getting the firearm taken away... Within 5 feet of you, a person has the ability to possibly take away your firearm.Some most people you want to keep five feet or more away from you and the gun....

Quora

https://www.quora.com › If-you-p...

If you pull out a pistol within 10 feet of someone should you use it?

I can use verbal threats or persuasion, but until it's a deadly threat, it should stay in my holster. Pulling out a pistol and expecting it to ..

And yes, when somebody gets about 10 feet away from you.If you see there a threat then you need to pull the gun and if they keep on approaching when you tell them to stop then you have to use the gun.... The closer they get to you the less effective the gun is...