neuromuscular
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Windows 10 will soon include built-in eye tracking
It's not easy to use a PC if you have ALS or another neuromuscular disease that prevents you from using your hands. You can use eye tracking, but that could easily entail specialized software and an imperfect experience. Microsoft thinks it can do better. It's adding built-in eye tracking to Windows 10, nicknamed Eye Control, that will let anyone navigate using their gaze. You can launch apps, type and otherwise perform common tasks just by focusing your eyes on the right part of the screen.
Researchers create spinal cord connectors from human stem cells, heralding breakthrough
It's taken many years and more than a bit of brainpower, but researchers at the University of Central Florida have finally found a way to create neuromuscular connectors between muscle and spinal cord cells, using only stem cells. Led by bioengineer James Hickman, the team pulled off the feat with help from Brown University Professor Emeritus Herman Vandenburgh, who collected muscle stem cell samples from adult volunteers. After close examination, they then discovered that under the right conditions, these samples could be combined with spinal cord cells to form connectors, or neuromuscular junctions, which the brain uses to control the body's muscles. UCF's engineers say the technique, described in the December issue of the journal Biomaterials, marks a major breakthrough for the development of "human-on-a-chip" models -- systems that simulate organ functions and have the potential to drastically accelerate medical research and drug development. These junctions could also pay dividends for research on Lou Gehrig's disease or spinal cord injuries, though it remains unclear whether we can expect to see these benefits anytime soon.
