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Scientists use 3-D ultrasound technology to test a robot’s ability to independently perform surgeries

Duke University engineers think they’ve made an important step towards developing robotic surgeons that operate independently. The robot they used in their experiments—which were just feasibility studies, and were not performed on real people—uses 3-D ultrasound as its eyes, and an AI program that processes the 3-D information it gathers to determine the robot’s next steps.

The robot has successfully performed several simulated procedures—directing catheters inside synthetic blood vessels, carrying out needle biopsies and even removing a fake cyst. A tiny 3-D ultrasound transducer gathers the images, effectively providing the robot’s arm with a map of where it needs to go.

And while the long-term goal is to have some future version of their robot perform more complex tasks in animal models, the engineers also say that the 3-D ultrasound tech they use could prove to be a valuable tool to today’s surgeons.

Via Science Daily

New research indicates that individual cells may need guidance in times of stress

It is well known how we humans respond to immediate stress—through a phenomenon we share with all animals known as fight or flight. During these times of increased threat, our bodies’ systems work in concert to raise our heart rate, pump adrenaline, and sharpen our focus. Now scientists working at Northwestern University have discovered that these responses may be coordinated by special stress-receptor neurons, rather than in each cell individually. Previously, cells were assumed to each respond to stress conditions (such as an increase in temperature) on their own. But as research on the tiny C. elegans worm shows this month in the journal Science, neurons are responsible for coordinating the animal’s cells and their reply.

The C. elegans worm is a favorite of cellular researchers, paradoxically, because it is at once simple and complex. It has a functioning nervous system, but the worm itself is made up of less than 1000 cells, the lineage of which has been mapped for each one. That means researchers know what to expect out of just about every individual part of the animal down to the cellular level. So when they discovered that just two neurons were responsible for the other 957 cells’ behavior in stress situations, they were quite surprised. By genetically shutting down the heat-sensing ability of those neurons, they found that no other cell subsequently responded to temperature stresses.

In more complicated organisms then, neurons may be responsible for coordinating local networks of cells to respond to stress, which if true, could help us better understand diseases which affect those pathways.

Via Physorg

Powdered pig bladder made Lee Spievak’s sawed-off finger grow back. Is this the future of medicine?

What do starfish, salamanders, and the Hulk have in common? They all have the power of regeneration. Starfish can regenerate their legs; salamanders can do that and a few better by regrowing their tail, and parts of their heart and eyes. The Hulk, well, the Hulk can regenerate it all. We ordinary humans are not so lucky. If we lose something, it’s gone for good, unless, that is, we happen to have a brother working in the field of regenerative medicine.

Last year, a man named Lee Spievak was working in a hobby shop when he accidentally put his finger into the blades of a spinning propeller on a model airplane. He lost half an inch of flesh, down to the bone. His doctors told him the severed portion would be lost for good. Fortunately for Spievak, his brother had access to a powered compound made from the cells lining the interior walls of a pig’s bladder.

Developed by a lab at the University of Pittsburgh, the powder—known as extra cellular matrix—tells tissue cells to grow rather than to scar. After about a month of daily application, Spievak’s entire finger had regrown and sealed up. The nail returned a short while later. Although his case is not part of any clinical trial, he is the first documented person to have experienced successful regeneration.

The researchers on the project emphasize that the technology still harbors many unknowns, not the least of which is the accidental encouragement of cancerous growth. But if Spievak’s results are any indication, the powder could prove to be a medical breakthrough on a grand scale.

Via BBC