spinal cord – Impact Lab

3D Printer, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough

3D-printed nerve stem cells could help patch up spinal cord injuries

August 14, 2018

A 3D-printed device, loaded with neuronal stem cells, that can be implanted into an injured spinal cord to help “bridge” the damage,

Spinal injuries can be like downed power lines – even if everything on either side of the injury is perfectly functional, the break can effectively shut down the whole system. Now, researchers at the University of Minnesota have designed a device that could link everything back together again. A silicone guide, covered in 3D-printed neuronal stem cells, can be implanted into the injury site, where it grows new connections between remaining nerves to let patients regain some motor control.

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Analysis, Brain, Breakthrough Thinking, Health & Fitness, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

‘Matrix’-like brain training to speed up physical therapy possible in the future

October 28, 2015

It’s no easy task to learn to walk again after a traumatic accident. One of the hardest things for motor-impaired patients is to generate the correct brain signals to help them recover efficiently.

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Paralyzed man first to walk using brain power alone

October 14, 2015

A paralyzed man is able to move using his brainpower thanks to a ‘neural-bypass procedure’ that has been heralded a world first. Neurosurgeons achieved the world first by transmitting signals from the 26-year-old American’s brain to electrodes placed around both knees.

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Scientists discover mechanism that could regrow damaged nerves

April 3, 2014

The discovery could lead to developing a drug that can trigger regrowth of damaged nerves.

Spinal cord injuries are currently irreparable. Most people who suffer from such an injury never fully recover, and many end up with partial or even full paralysis. Although we’ve made great strides in understanding how spinal injuries damage nerves and how we might fix the spinal cord in the future, and even how those patients can cope in the meantime, we still don’t know how to repair the nerves themselves when such an injury occurs. However, scientists at Imperial College London have recently discovered a mechanism that allows them to repair, and even regenerate, nerves in the central nervous system after a spinal cord injury.

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Analysis, Brain, Health & Fitness, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

Scientists discover the secret to what makes us itch

May 27, 2013

What makes us itch?

Scientists now know the secret. In what will be a boon for millions of people with chronic itch conditions, such as eczema and psoriasis, a small molecule released in the spinal cord has now been found to trigger a process that is later experienced in the brain as the sensation of itch.

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