The Monitor Daily

Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Log in

As a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, this site may earn from qualifying purchases. We may also earn commissions on purchases from other retail websites.

  • Home
  • Politics & National News
  • Business News
  • Tech & Science
  • Health & Lifestyle
  • About us
    • Contact US
    • Privacy Policy GDPR
    • Terms of Use
  • Latest News
    • Stormy Planet
    • US Surgeon Performs Face Transplant
    • 2017 MTV VMAs Nominations Are In And Voting Is Now Open
    • Bright House: Free McAfee AntiVirus and Adult Controls
    • Antarctic Yeti Crab Gets Formal Scientific Name
    • Spiders Take Over Australian Town
    • Interesting Facts About the Apollo 11 Mission
    • Social Smoking or The New Landmark of Elegance Among Young Women
    • Rare Weasel Returns To Washington State

Pages

  • About The Monitor Daily
  • Contact US
  • Our Team
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Terms of Use

Recent Posts

  • Precisely what is Administration Buyback? Feb 12, 2020
  • Precisely what is Administration Buyback? Feb 12, 2020
  • Where by do Registered requests get kept Dec 1, 2019
  • Find a Star of the event on the Submit Purchase New bride List May 19, 2019
  • Locate Really enjoy On the internet Apr 30, 2019
  • Get Love On the net Apr 12, 2019
  • NYC Man Snaps Photo of the Victim After Sucker-Punching Him in Broad Daylight Jun 29, 2018

MIT Chip Connecting Nerves and Muscles

By Leave a Comment

MIT chip

The MIT chip simulates the behavior of a neuromuscular junction.

A newly developed MIT chip mimics the connections between muscles and nerves, as scientists try to understand diseases such as the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

The researchers managed to set up a neuromuscular junction simulation, a chemical synapse that ensures the distribution of impulses between the nerve and the muscle.

The device creates a muscle response by activating the neuron set through a light. The muscle responds with a contraction or a twitch.

The researchers tried to understand better the junctions and how they are impacted by various diseases.

“You could potentially take pluripotent cells from an ALS patient, differentiate them into muscle and nerve cells, and make the whole system for that particular patient. Then you could replicate it as many times as you want, and try different drugs or combinations of therapies to see which is most effective in improving the connection between nerves and muscles,” said Roger Kamm, Professor of Mechanical and Biological Engineering at MIT.

The MIT chip involves mice cells, selected to merge with motor neurons and muscle components. The scientists then measured the force used in muscle contraction and analyzed displacements.

The device was tested in a container filled with gel, which duplicates the separation between muscles and nerves usually occurring in the human body.

The MIT chip has the size of a quarter, and its purpose is to help health scientists test drugs for neuromuscular disorders, such as sclerosis.

The neuromuscular junction is involved in brutal diseases, on which scientists have little information. The research started in the 1970s when researchers tried to simulate the human body function in the lab. However, the studies failed to reproduce the three-dimensional environment where muscles and neurons live.

The MIT chip benefits from a 3D environment and compartments that separate the muscles and the nerves. Cells from mice were injected in the microfluidic chamber, where the muscle cells and the nerve cells grew and fused into a muscle strip.

The neural cells were previously genetically modified to respond to light through a technique called optogenetics, as using electrodes was inefficient in a confined space.

The device can also sense the force through flexible pillars on which the muscle fiber wraps.

In the future, scientists believe that the device could work with cells taken directly from the patient and then grown inside the microfluidic compartment, where the drugs could be tested without the need to involve the patient itself.

Another way to use the device would be to test how a stimulated muscle fiber responds to repeated stress, and how it affects performance.

The research was conducted by professors, post-doc students and researchers in mechanical and biological engineering at MIT, with funding provided by the National Science Foundation.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Filed Under: Tech & Science

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 34 other subscribers

Operation Paperclip

Remembering Georg von Tiesenhausen, Last Member of Von Braun’s Rocket Team

By Leave a Comment

giant ground sloths on white background

It Seems that Giant Sloths Once Roamed Earth, and Humans Used to Hunt Them? (Study)

By Leave a Comment

sn 2001ig supernova explosion and images of its stars

A Star Escaped a Supernova Explosion, and NASA Snapped its Picture

By Leave a Comment

ngc 6420 galaxy resembling a giant butterfly

Hubble Spots Giant Butterfly Formed by a Black Hole and Stellar Winds (Study)

By Leave a Comment

infrared image of a dog

Space Technology Could Help Protect Earth’s Endangered Species

By Leave a Comment

snake slithering on a beige background

Kirigami Skin Is Helping a Soft Robot Slither Like a Snake (Study)

By Leave a Comment

woolly mammoth

Ice Age Tracks Reveal How Young Mammoths Cared for Adult Ones (Study)

By Leave a Comment

High Priestess tomb.

Archaeologists Discovered 4400-Years-Old High Priestess Tomb Near Cairo

By Leave a Comment

dwarf galaxies

Dwarf Galaxies Challenge the Entire Dark Matter Cosmology (Study)

By Leave a Comment

NASA Scientists and Food Experiments

NASA Scientists to Test if Astronauts Could Eat Their Own Poo

By Leave a Comment

KFC Smoky Wings Box Can Turn into Awesome Drone

By Leave a Comment

Tesla Model S

Tesla Model S Involved in Autopilot Malfunction Accident

By Leave a Comment

Duke Nukem.

John Cena Cold Feature in Duke Nukem Movie

By Leave a Comment

Battlefield One

Battlefield One Apocalypse DLC to Land in February

By Leave a Comment

Related Articles

  • Operation Paperclip

    Remembering Georg von Tiesenhausen, Last Member of Von Braun’s Rocket Team

  • giant ground sloths on white background

    It Seems that Giant Sloths Once Roamed Earth, and Humans Used to Hunt Them? (Study)

  • sn 2001ig supernova explosion and images of its stars

    A Star Escaped a Supernova Explosion, and NASA Snapped its Picture

  • ngc 6420 galaxy resembling a giant butterfly

    Hubble Spots Giant Butterfly Formed by a Black Hole and Stellar Winds (Study)

  • infrared image of a dog

    Space Technology Could Help Protect Earth’s Endangered Species

  • snake slithering on a beige background

    Kirigami Skin Is Helping a Soft Robot Slither Like a Snake (Study)

  • woolly mammoth

    Ice Age Tracks Reveal How Young Mammoths Cared for Adult Ones (Study)

  • High Priestess tomb.

    Archaeologists Discovered 4400-Years-Old High Priestess Tomb Near Cairo

  • dwarf galaxies

    Dwarf Galaxies Challenge the Entire Dark Matter Cosmology (Study)

  • NASA Scientists and Food Experiments

    NASA Scientists to Test if Astronauts Could Eat Their Own Poo

Categories

  • Business News
  • Entertainment
  • Featured
  • Health & Lifestyle
  • Nature
  • Politics & National
  • Sports
  • Tech & Science
  • US
  • World

Copyright © 2021 TheMonitorDaily.com

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Sitemap · Contact

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more.