Chemists and vision scientists have designed a light-sensitive molecule that can stimulate a neural response in cells of the retina and brain -- a possible first step to overcoming degenerative eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration, or to quieting epileptic seizures.
WSU’s Department of Engineering, received an encouraging visit from ABET, the organization that accredits engineering programs nationally.
In extensive bone defects, tissue damage and hypoxia lead to cell death, resulting in slow and incomplete healing. Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) can give rise to all specialized lineages found in healthy bone and are therefore uniquely suited to aid regeneration of damaged bone.
Epigenetic modifications, such as DNA and histone methylation, are responsible for regulatory pathways that affect disease. Current epigenetic analyses use bisulfite conversion to identify DNA methylation and chromatin immunoprecipitation to collect molecules bearing a specific histone modification.
Biological tissues are rarely transparent, presenting major challenges for deep tissue optical microscopy. The achievable imaging depth is fundamentally limited by wavefront distortions caused by aberration and random scattering.
Skeletal muscle is widely perceived as nearly incompressible despite the fact that blood and lymphatic vessels within the endomysial and perimysial spaces undergo significant changes in diameter and length during stretch and contraction. These fluid shifts between fascicle and interstitial compartments have proved extremely difficult to measure.
The use of synthetic biological systems in research, healthcare, and manufacturing often requires autonomous history-dependent behavior and therefore some form of engineered biological memory. For example, the study or reprogramming of aging, cancer, or development would benefit from genetically encoded counters capable of recording up to several hundred cell division or differentiation events.
Noble metals such as gold and silver are conventionally used as the primary plasmonic building blocks of optical metamaterials.
Otitis media (OM), a middle-ear infection, is the most common childhood illness treated by pediatricians. If inadequately treated, OM can result in long-term chronic problems persisting into adulthood. Children with chronic OM or recurrent OM often have conductive hearing loss and communication difficulties and require surgical treatment.
