2025-11-11 23:00:00
The qubits are similar enough to those used by the likes of Google and IBM that they could slot into existing processors in the future.
One the biggest challenges for quantum computers is the incredibly short time that qubits can retain information. But a new qubit from Princeton University lasts 15 times longer than industry standard versions in a major step towards large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum systems.
A major bottleneck for quantum computing is decoherence—the rate at which qubits lose stored quantum information to the environment. The faster this happens, the less time the computer has to perform operations and the more errors are introduced to the calculations.
While companies and researchers are developing error-correction schemes to mitigate this problem, qubits with greater stability could be a more robust solution. Trapped-ion and neutral-atom qubits can have coherence times on the order of seconds, but the superconducting qubits used by companies like Google and IBM remain below the 100-microsecond threshold.
These so-called “transmon” qubits have other advantages such as faster operation speeds, but their short shelf life remains a major disadvantage. Now a team from Princeton has designed novel transmon qubits with coherence times of up to 1.6 milliseconds—15 times longer than those used in industry and three times longer than the best lab experiment.
“This advance brings quantum computing out of the realm of merely possible and into the realm of practical,” Princeton’s Andrew Houck, who co-led the research, said in a press release. “Now we can begin to make progress much more quickly.”
The team’s new approach, detailed in a paper in Nature, tackles a long-standing problem in the design of transmon qubits. Tiny surface defects in the metal used to make them, typically aluminium, can absorb energy as it travels through the circuit, resulting in errors in the underlying computations.
The new qubit instead uses the metal tantalum, which has far fewer of these defects. The researchers had already experimented with this material as far back as 2021, but earlier versions were built on top of a layer of sapphire. The researchers realized the sapphire was also leading to significant energy loss and so replaced it with a layer of silicon, which is commercially available at extremely high purity.
Creating a clean enough interface between the two materials to maintain superconductivity is challenging, but the team solved the problem with a new fabrication process. And because silicon is the computing industry’s material of choice, the new qubits should be easier to mass-produce than earlier versions.
To prove out the new process, the researchers built a fully functioning quantum chip with six of the new qubits. Crucially, the new design is similar enough to the qubits used by companies like Google and IBM that it could easily slot into existing processors to boost performance, the researchers say.
This could chip away at the main barrier preventing existing quantum computers from solving larger problems—the fact that short coherence times mean qubits are overwhelmed by errors before they can do any useful calculations.
The process of getting the design from the lab bench to the chip foundry is likely to be long and complicated though, so it’s unclear if companies will switch to this new qubit architecture any time soon. Still, the research has made dramatic progress on one of the biggest challenges holding back superconducting quantum computers.
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2025-11-11 01:44:09
This herculean effort could help scientists unravel the causes of autism, schizophrenia, and even a deadly form of cancer.
Like the seeds of a forest, a few cells in embryos eventually sprout into an ecosystem of brain cells. Neurons get the most recognition for their computing power. But a host of other cells provides nutrition, clears the brain of waste, and wards off dangers, such as toxic protein buildup or inflammation.
This rich diversity underlies our ability to process information, transforming perception of the world and our internal dialogues into thoughts, emotions, memories, and decisions. Mimicking the brain could potentially lead to energy-efficient computers or AI systems. But we’re still decoding how the brain works.
One way to understand a machine is to first examine its parts. The landmark project BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN), launched in 2022, has parsed the brains of multiple species and compiled a census of adult brain cells with unprecedented resolution.
But brains are not computers. Their components aren’t engineered and glued on. They develop and interact cohesively over time.
Building on previous work, the BICAN consortium has now released results that peek inside the developing brain. By tracking genes and their expression in the cells of developing human and mouse brains, the researchers have built a dynamic picture of how the brain constructs itself.
This herculean effort could help scientists unravel the causes of neurodevelopmental disorders. In one study, led by Arnold Kriegstein at the University of California, San Francisco, scientists found brain stem cells that are potentially co-opted to form a deadly brain cancer in adulthood. Other studies shed light on imbalances between excitatory and inhibitory neurons—these ramp up or tone down brain activity, respectively—which could contribute to autism and schizophrenia.
“Many brain diseases begin during different stages of development, but until now we haven’t had a comprehensive roadmap for simply understanding healthy brain development,” said Kriegstein in a press release. “Our map highlights the genetic programs behind the growth of the human brain that go awry during specific forms of brain dysfunction.”
Over a century ago, the first neuroscientists used brain cell shapes to categorize their identities. BICAN collaborators have a much larger arsenal of tools to map the brain’s cells.
A key technology called single-cell spatial transcriptomics detects which genes are turned on in cells at any given time. The results are then combined with the cells’ physical location in the brain. The result is a gene expression “heat map” that provides clues about a cell’s lineage and final identity. Like genealogical tracking, the technology traces the heritage of different types of brain cells and when they emerge while at the same time providing their physical address.
Like other organs, the brain grows from stem cells.
In early developmental stages, stem cells are nudged into different fates: Some turn into neurons, some turn into other cell types. So far, no single technology can “film” their journey. But BICAN’s new releases measuring gene expression through development offer a glimpse.
In one tour-de-force study, Kriegstein and team used a technique that maps gene variants to single cells during multiple stages of development. Many variants were previously linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, but their biological contribution remained mysterious.
The team gathered 38 donated human cortex samples—the outermost part of the brain—that spanned all three trimesters of pregnancy, after birth, and early adolescence.
They then grouped individual cells using gene expression data across samples. They found roughly 30 different types of cells that emerge during brain development, including excitatory and inhibitory neurons, supporting cells such as glia, and immune cells called microglia.
Some were linked to a single source. This curious cell type, dubbed tripotential intermediate progenitor cells, spawned an inhibitory neuron, star-shaped glia, and brain cells that wrap around neurons as protective sheathes of electrical insulation. The latter break down in neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis, resulting in fatigue, pain, and memory problems.
Many genes related to autism were turned on in immature neurons as they began their brain-wiring journey. Gene mutations, environmental influences, and other disruptions could interfere with their growth.
“These programs of gene expression became active when young neurons were still migrating throughout the growing brain and figuring out how to build connections with other neurons,” said study author Li Wang. “If something goes wrong at this stage, those maturing neurons might become confused about where to go or what to do.”
The mother cells also have a dark side. Scientists have long thought that glioblastoma, a fatal brain cancer, stems from multiple types of neural precursor cells. Because mother cells, marked by their distinctive gene expression profiles, develop into all three types of cells involved in the cancer, they’re essentially cancer stem cells that could be targeted for future treatments.
“By understanding the context in which one stem cell produces three cell types in the developing brain, we could be able to interrupt that growth when it reappears during cancer,” said Wang.
Other BICAN studies also zeroed in on inhibitory neurons.
The authors of one hunted down a group of immature cells that shifted from making excitatory neurons to inhibitory ones during the middle of gestation, proving to be a balance between both forces. In another, in mice, researchers followed inhibitory neurons as they diversified and spread across the developing brain. More subtypes with unique gene expression profiles appeared in the cortex compared to deeper regions, which are more evolutionarily ancient.
Other studies investigated gene expression in neurodevelopment and how changes can lead to inflammation. Environmental influences such as social interactions played a role, especially in forming brain circuits tailored to gauging others’ behaviors. In developing mice, several genes related to social demands abruptly changed their activity during developmental milestones, including puberty.
Some cell types were shape-shifters. In mice, an immune challenge briefly changed microglia—the brain’s immune cells—back into a developmental-like state, suggesting these cells have the ability to turn back the clock.
The collection of studies only skims the surface of what BICAN’s database offers. Although the project mainly focused on the cortex, ongoing initiatives are detailing a cell atlas of the entire developing brain across dozens of timepoints and multiple species.
“Taken together, this collection from the BICAN turns the static portrait of cell types into a dynamic story of the developing brain,” wrote Emily Sylwestrak at the University of Oregon, who was not involved in the studies.
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2025-11-08 23:00:00
The Next Big Quantum Computer Has ArrivedIsabelle Bousquette | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“Helios contains 98 physical qubits, and from those can deliver 48 logical error-corrected qubits. This 2:1 ratio is unique and impressive, said Prineha Narang, professor of physical sciences and electrical and computer engineering at UCLA, and partner at venture-capital firm DCVC. Other companies require anything from dozens to hundreds of physical qubits to create one logical qubit.”
In a First, AI Models Analyze Language as Well as a Human ExpertSteve Nadis | Quanta
“While most of the LLMs failed to parse linguistic rules in the way that humans are able to, one had impressive abilities that greatly exceeded expectations. It was able to analyze language in much the same way a graduate student in linguistics would—diagramming sentences, resolving multiple ambiguous meanings, and making use of complicated linguistic features such as recursion.”
Wireless, Laser-Shooting Brain Implant Fits on a Grain of SaltMalcolm Azania | New Atlas
“Along with their international partners, researchers at Cornell University have developed a micro-neural implant so tiny it could dance on the head of a pin, and so astonishingly well-engineered that after implantation in a mouse, it can wirelessly transmit data about brain function for more than a year under its own power.”
Quantum Computing Jolted by DARPA Decision on Most Viable CompaniesAdam Bluestein | Fast Company
“For a technology that could produce world-changing feats but remains far from maturity—and into which billions of investment dollars have been flowing in recent months—the QBI validation is profound. The QBI’s first judgments, announced yesterday, reconfigure the competitive landscape, bolstering some powerful incumbents and boosting lesser-known players and outlier approaches. They also delivered a formidable gut punch to a couple of industry pioneers.”
Our First Terraforming Goal Should Be the Moon, Not MarsEthan Siegel | Big Think
“The only way to prepare a world for human inhabitants is to make the environment more Earth-like: terraforming. While most of humanity’s space dreams have focused on Mars, a better candidate may be even closer: the moon. Its proximity to Earth, composition, and many other factors make it very appealing. Mars should be a dream, but not our only one.”
This Genetically Engineered Fungus Could Help Fix Your Mosquito ProblemJason P. Dinh | The New York Times ($)
“Researchers reported last week in the journal Nature Microbiology that Metarhizium—a fungus already used to control pests—can be genetically engineered to produce so much of a sweet-smelling substance that it is virtually irresistible to mosquitoes. When they laced traps with those fungi, 90 percent to 100 percent of mosquitoes were killed in lab experiments.”
10,000 Generations of Hominins Used the Same Stone Tools to Weather a Changing WorldKiona N. Smith | Ars Technica
“The oldest tools at the site date back to 2.75 million years ago. According to a recent study, the finds suggest that for hundreds of millennia, ancient hominins relied on the same stone tool technology as an anchor while the world changed around them.”
The First New Subsea Habitat in 40 Years Is About to LaunchMark Harris | MIT Technology Review ($)
“Once it is sealed and moved to its permanent home beneath the waves of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary early next year, Vanguard will be the world’s first new subsea habitat in nearly four decades. Teams of four scientists will live and work on the seabed for a week at a time, entering and leaving the habitat as scuba divers.”
Waymo’s Robotaxis Are Coming to Three New CitiesAndrew J. Hawkins | The Verge
“Waymo said it plans on launching commercial robotaxi services in three new cities: San Diego, Las Vegas, and Detroit. The announcement comes after the company said it would begin rapidly scaling to bring its fully driverless technology to more people on a faster timeline.”
AI Capabilities May Be Overhyped on Bogus Benchmarks, Study FindsAJ Dellinger | Gizmodo
“You know all of those reports about artificial intelligence models successfully passing the bar or achieving PhD-level intelligence? Looks like we should start taking those degrees back. A new study from researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute suggests that most of the popular benchmarking tools that are used to test AI performance are often unreliable and misleading.”
Unesco Adopts Global Standards on ‘Wild West’ Field of NeurotechnologyAisha Down | The Guardian
“The standards define a new category of data, ‘neural data,’ and suggest guidelines governing its protection. A list of more than 100 recommendations ranges from rights-based concerns to addressing scenarios that are—at least for now—science fiction, such as companies using neurotechnology to subliminally market to people during their dreams.”
The post This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through November 8) appeared first on SingularityHub.
2025-11-07 23:00:00
The new radio portrait of the Milky Way is the most sensitive, widest-area map at these frequencies to date.
The Milky Way is a rich and complex environment. We see it as a luminous line stretching across the night sky, composed of innumerable stars.
But that’s just the visible light. Observing the sky in other ways, such as through radio waves, provides a much more nuanced scene—full of charged particles and magnetic fields.
For decades, astronomers have used radio telescopes to explore our galaxy. By studying the properties of the objects residing in the Milky Way, we can better understand its evolution and composition.
Our study, published recently in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, provides new insights into the structure of our galaxy’s galactic plane.
To reveal the radio sky, we used the Murchison Widefield Array, a radio telescope in the Australian outback, composed of 4,096 antennas spread over several square kilometers. The array observes wide regions of the sky at a time, enabling it to rapidly map the galaxy.
Between 2013 and 2015, the array was used to observe the entire southern hemisphere sky for the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA (or GLEAM) survey. This survey covered a broad range of radio wave frequencies.
The wide frequency coverage of GLEAM gave astronomers the first “radio color” map of the sky, including the galaxy itself. It revealed the diffuse glow of the galactic disk, as well as thousands of distant galaxies and regions where stars are born and die.
With the upgrade of the array in 2018, we observed the sky with higher resolution and sensitivity, resulting in the GLEAM-eXtended survey (GLEAM-X).
The big difference between the two surveys is that GLEAM could detect the big picture but not the detail, while GLEAM-X saw the detail but not the big picture.
To capture both, our team used a new imaging technique called image domain gridding. We combined thousands of GLEAM and GLEAM-X observations to form one huge mosaic of the galaxy.
Because the two surveys observed the sky at different times, it was important to correct for the ionosphere distortions—shifts in radio waves caused by irregularities in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Otherwise, these distortions would shift the position of the sources between observations.
The algorithm applies these corrections, aligning and stacking data from different nights smoothly. This took more than 1 million processing hours on supercomputers at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Western Australia.
The result is a new mosaic covering 95 percent of the Milky Way visible from the southern hemisphere, spanning radio frequencies from 72 to 231 megahertz. The big advantage of the broad frequency range is the ability to see different sources with their “radio color” depending on whether the radio waves are produced by cosmic magnetic fields or by hot gas.
The emission coming from the explosion of dead stars appears in orange. The lower the frequency, the brighter it is. Meanwhile, the regions where stars are born shine in blue.
These colors allow astronomers to pick out the different physical components of the galaxy at a glance.
The new radio portrait of the Milky Way is the most sensitive, widest-area map at these low frequencies to date. It will enable a plethora of galactic science, from discovering and studying faint and old remnants of star explosions to mapping the energetic cosmic rays and the dust and grains that dominate the medium within the stars.
The power of this image will not be surpassed until the new SKA-Low telescope is complete and operational, eventually being thousands of times more sensitive and with higher resolution than its predecessor, the Murchison Widefield Array.
This upgrade is still a few years away. For now, this new image stands as an inspiring preview of the wonders the full SKA-Low will one day reveal.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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2025-11-07 05:10:57
The technology unleashes self-replicating viruses called phages on food bacteria to continuously hunt down and destroy bad bugs.
It’s a home cook’s nightmare: You open the fridge ready to make dinner and realize the meat has spoiled. You have to throw it out, kicking yourself for not cooking it sooner.
According to the USDA, a staggering one-third of food is tossed out because of spoilage, leading to over $160 billion lost every year. Much of this food is protein and fresh produce, which could feed families in need. The land, water, labor, energy, and transportation that brought the food to people’s homes also goes to waste.
Canada’s McMaster University has a solution. A team of scientists wrapped virus-packed microneedles inside a paper towel-like square sitting at the bottom of a Ziploc container. It’s an unusual duo. But the viruses, called phages, specifically target bacteria related to food spoilage. Some are already approved for consumption.
Using microneedles to inject the phages into foods, the team decontaminated chicken, shrimp, peppers, and cheese. All it took was placing the square on the bottom of a storage dish or on the surface of the food. Mixing and matching the phages destroyed multiple dangerous bacterial strains. In some cases, it made spoiled meat safe to eat again based on current regulations.
It’s just a prototype, but a similar design could one day be used in food packaging.
“[The platform] can revolutionize current food contamination practices, preventing foodborne illness and waste through the active decontamination of food products,” wrote the team.
It’s easy to take food safety for granted. The occasional bad bite of leftover pizza might give you some discomfort, but you bounce back. Still, foodborne pathogens result in hundreds of millions of cases and tens of thousands of deaths every year according to the World Health Organization. Bacteria like E. Coliand Salmonella are the main culprits.
Existing solutions rely on antibiotics. But they come with baggage. Flooding agriculture with these drugs contributes to antibacterial resistance, impacting the farming industry and healthcare.
Other preservative additives—like those in off-the-shelf foods—incorporate chemicals, essential oils, and other molecules. Although these are wallet-friendly and safe to eat, they often change core aspects of food like texture and flavor (canned salsa never tastes as great as the fresh stuff).
Maverick food scientists have been exploring an alternative way to combat food spoilage—phages. Adding a bath of viruses to a bacteria-infected stew is hardly an obvious food safety strategy, but it stems from research into antibacterial resistance.
Phages are viruses that only infect bacteria. They look a bit like spiders. Their heads house genetic material, while their legs grab onto bacteria. Once attached, phages inject their DNA into the bacteria and force their hosts to reproduce more viruses—before destroying them.
Because phages don’t infect human cells, they can be antibacterial treatments and even gene therapies. And they’re already part of our food production system. FDA-approved ListShield, for example, reduces Listeria in produce, smoked salmon, and frozen foods. PhageGuard S, approved in the US and EU, fights off Salmonella. Other phage-based products include sprays, edible films, and hydrogel-based packaging used to decontaminate food surfaces.
Even better, phages self-renew. They are “self-dosing antimicrobial additives,” wrote the team.
But size has been a limiting factor: They’re too big. Phages struggle to tunnel into larger pieces of food—say, a plump chicken breast. Although they might swiftly wipe out bacteria on the surface, pathogens can still silently brew inside a cutlet.
The new device was inspired by medical microneedle patches. These look like Band-Aids, but loaded inside are medications that can seep deeper into tissues—or in this case, food.
To construct food-safe microneedles, the team tested a range of edible materials and homed in on four ingredients. These included gelatin, the squishy protein-rich component at the heart of Jell-O, and other biocompatible materials readily used in medical devices. The ingredients were poured into a mold, baked into separate microneedle patches, and checked for integrity.
Each ingredient had strengths and weakness. But after testing the patches on various foods—mushrooms, fish, cooked chicken, and cheese—one component stood out for its reusability and ability to penetrate deeper. Called PMMA, the coating is already used in food-safe plexiglass and reusable packaging.
The team next loaded multiple phages that target different food-spoiling bacteria into PMMA scaffolds and challenged the patches to neutralize bacterial “lawns.” True to their name, these are fuzzy microscopic bits of bacteria that form a carpet. You’ve probably seen them at the bottom of a food container you’ve left far too long in the fridge.
The phage patches completely erased both E. Coli and Salmonellain steaks with high levels of the bacteria. Another test pitted the patches against existing methods in leftover chicken that had lingered 18 hours in unsafe food conditions. Compared to directly injecting phages or applying phage sprays, the microneedle patch was the only strategy that kept the chicken safe to eat according to current regulations.
The system was especially resilient to temperature changes. When applied to chicken or raw beef, the phage patches were active for at least a month at regular refrigerator temperatures, “ensuring compatibility with food products that require prolonged storage,” wrote the team.
The system can be tailored to tackle different bacteria, especially by mixing up which phages are included. Using a variety could potentially target strains of bacteria throughout the food production line, making the final product safer.
The team is planning to integrate the platform into food packaging materials, which would ensure the microneedles are in constant contact with the food and deliver a large dose of phages that self-replicate to continue warding off bacteria. Other ideas include sprinkling phage-loaded materials directly onto food during manufacturing and production.
The idea of eating viruses might seem a little weird. But phages naturally occur in almost all foods, including meat, dairy, and vegetables. You’ve likely already eaten these bacteria-fighting warriors at some point as they’re silently hunting down disease-causing bacteria.
The vaccine could prevent foodborne illness and reduce waste. It’s easy to adapt to different strains of bacteria, food-safe, and cost effective, wrote the team, making it “well suited for applications within the food industry.”
The post Scientists Unveil a ‘Living Vaccine’ That Kills Bad Bacteria in Food to Make It Last Longer appeared first on SingularityHub.
2025-11-05 04:51:23
A bioprinter with a printhead the size of a sesame seed could deliver hydrogels to surgical sites.
Elephant trunks and garden hoses hardly seem like inspirations for a miniature 3D bioprinter.
Yet they’ve led scientists at McGill University to engineer the smallest reported bioprinting head to date. Described in the journal Devices, the device has a flexible tip just 2.7 millimeters in diameter—roughly the length of a sesame seed.
Bioprinters can deposit a wide range of healing materials directly at the site of injury. Some bioinks combat infections in lab studies; others deliver chemotherapy to cancerous sites, which could prevent tumors from recurring. On the operating table, biocompatible hydrogels injected during surgery help heal wounds.
The devices are promising but most are rather bulky. They struggle to reach all the body’s nooks and crannies—including, for example, the vocal cords.
It’s easy to take our ability to speak for granted and only appreciate its loss after catching a bad cold. But up to nine percent of people develop vocal-cord disorders in their lifetimes. Smoking, acid reflux, and chronic coughing tear at the delicate folds of tissue. Abnormal growths and cancers also contribute. These are usually removed with surgery that comes with a significant risk of scarring.
Hydrogels can help with healing. But because throat and vocal cord tissue is so intricate, current treatments inject it through the skin, rather than precisely into damaged regions.
But the new device can, in theory, sneak into a patient’s throat during surgery. Its tiny printhead doesn’t block a surgeon’s view, allowing near real-time printing after the removal of damaged tissues.
“I thought this would not be feasible at first—it seemed like an impossible challenge to make a flexible robot less than 3 mm in size,” Luc Mongeau, who led the study, said in a press release.
Although just a prototype, the device could one day help restore people’s voices after surgery and improve quality of life. It also could lead to the delivery of bioinks containing medications or even living cells to other tissues through the nose, mouth, or a small surgical cut.
Surgery inevitably results in scars. While these are an annoyance on the skin, excessive scarring—called fibrosis—seriously limits how well tissues can do their jobs.
Fibrosis in lungs after surgery, for example, leads to infections, blood clots, and a general decline in normal breathing. Scarring of the heart tampers with its electrical signals and often leads to irregular heartbeats. And for delicate tissues like vocal cords, fibrosis causes lasting stiffness, making it difficult to intonate, sing, or talk like before—essentially robbing the person of their voice.
Scientists have found a range of molecules that could aid the healing process. Hydrogels are one promising candidate. Soft, flexible, and biocompatible, hydrogel injections provide a squishy but structured architecture supporting vocal cords. Studies also suggest hydrogels boost the growth the healthy tissues and reduce fibrosis.
But because vocal cords are difficult to target, injections are handled through the skin, making it difficult to control where the hydrogel goes.
An alternative is to 3D print hydrogels directly in the body and repair damage during surgery. Both handheld and robotic systems have been successfully tested in labs, and minimally invasive versions are on the rise. One design uses air pressure to bioprint hydrogels inside the intestines. Another taps into magnets to repair the liver. But existing devices are too large to accommodate vocal cords.
To heal vocal cords, an ideal mini 3D bioprinter must seamlessly integrate into throat surgeries. Here, surgeons insert a microscope through the mouth and suspend it inside the throat. While it sounds uncomfortable, the procedure is highly efficient with little pain afterward.
The printhead needs to snake around the microscope but also flexibly adjust its position to target injured sites without blocking the surgeon’s view. Finally, the speed and force of the hydrogel spray should be controllable—avoiding the equivalent of accidentally squeezing out too much superglue.
The new bioprinter’s has a printhead a bit like an elephant’s trunk. It has a flexible arm that easily slips into the throat with a 2.7-millimeter arched nozzle at the end. Picture it as a fine-point Sharpie connected to a flexible tube. Three cables operate the printhead and control nozzle movement by applying tension, like strings on a puppet.
The system’s brain is in the actuator housing, which looks like a tiny plastic gift box. It holds a syringe of hydrogel for the printhead and pilots the adjustable cables using motors that precisely move the printhead to its intended location with a custom algorithm. Other electronics allow the team to control the setup using a wireless gaming controller in real time.
The actuator can be mounted under a standard throat surgery microscope so it’s out of the way during an operation, wrote the team.
To put the device through its paces, the team used the mini bioprinter to draw a range of shapes, including a square, heart, spiral, and various letters on a flat surface. The printhead accurately deposited thin lines of hydrogel, which can be stacked to form thicker lines—like repeatedly tracing drawings using a fine-tipped pen.
The team also tried it out in a mock vocal cord surgery. The “patient” was an accurate 3D model of a person’s throat but with different types of wounds to its vocal cords, including one that completely lacked half of the tissue. The bioprinter successfully made the repairs and reconstructed the missing vocal cord without issue.
“Part of what makes this device so impressive is that it behaves predictably, even though it’s essentially a garden hose—and if you’ve ever seen a garden hose, you know that when you start running water through it, it goes crazy,” said study author Audrey Sedal.
The flexibility comes at a cost. Though the printhead design deforms to prevent injury to tissues, this also means it’s more prone to mechanical vibrations from the actuator’s motors, which dings its accuracy.
As of now the mini printer requires manual control, but the team is working on a semi-autonomous version. More importantly, it needs to be pitted against standard hydrogel injection methods in living animals to show it’s safe and effective.
“The next step is testing these hydrogels in animals, and hopefully that will lead us to clinical trials in humans to test the accuracy, usability, and clinical outcomes of the bioprinter and hydrogel,” said Mongeau.
The post A Tiny 3D Printer Could Mend Vocal Cords in Real Time During Surgery appeared first on SingularityHub.
