What makes you genetically compatible with your partner?

A University of Manchester professor and his wife have had their own DNA analysed for compatibility as part of the research for a new book out this week.

Professor Daniel Davis and his wife Katie’s experience is documented in The Compatibility Gene, published by Penguin, which discusses how our crucial compatibility genes may influence finding a life partner as well as our health and individuality.

The book explains how research has radically transformed knowledge of the way our bodies work - with profound consequences for medical research and ethics. The story begins with a small band of scientific pioneers who, during the Second World War, struggled to understand the mysteries of transplants and grafts. And continues to the Swiss zoologist who had people rank the sexiness of smells from worn T-shirts - and found the results related to our compatibility genes. Very recent experiments discussed in the book show that these same genes may also influence the likelihood of problems in pregnancy.

Interstellar solar sail effort

The first Starship Congress conference session was devoted to solar sails, leading off with Jim Benford’s keynote, followed by Les Johnson, who described current and near-term work. Right now the only propulsion method that will get us to interstellar velocities is the sail, and even then we’re talking no more than a couple of hundred kilometers per second.

Carbon fiber is ideal for sail work because when you put a microwave beam on the sail the material absorbs energy and begins to heat. A sail made of aluminum would begin to melt as you reach about 900 K, limiting possible accelerations, but carbon fiber has a low areal density (about 8 grams per square meter in the material the Benfords used) and a microwave reflectivity approaching 90 percent.

The material is actually a carbon-carbon microtruss, meaning a core of carbon fibers is fused to a textured outer surface. With carbon nanotubes woven into the material, this microtruss is capable of temperatures up to 3000 K, at which point it doesn’t melt but sublimes, going from solid to gas with no intervening liquid state.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/08/interstellar-solar-sail-effort.html

Computer can read letters directly from the brain

By analysing MRI images of the brain with an elegant mathematical model, it is possible to reconstruct thoughts more accurately than ever before. In this way, researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen have succeeded in determining which letter a test subject was looking at. The journal Neuroimage has accepted the article, which will be published soon.

The researchers 'taught' a model how small volumes of 2x2x2 mm from the brain scans – known as voxels – respond to individual pixels. By combining all the information about the pixels from the voxels, it became possible to reconstruct the image viewed by the subject. The result was not a clear image, but a somewhat fuzzy speckle pattern. In this study, the researchers used hand-written letters.

"In our further research we will be working with a more powerful MRI scanner," explains Sanne Schoenmakers, who is working on a thesis about decoding thoughts. "Due to the higher resolution of the scanner, we hope to be able to link the model to more detailed images. We are currently linking images of letters to 1200 voxels in the brain; with the more powerful scanner we will link images of faces to 15,000 voxels."

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-08-letters-brain.html

'Spider style' blood vessel building

A way of building body parts similar to the way a spider spins its web has been demonstrated by researchers in the UK.

The team at University College London used a constant stream of cells mixed with a polymer to weave the new tissues.

They think the technique could produce better results than other ways of building body parts for transplant.

The idea is that a patch of heart muscle could improve function after a heart attack.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23793787

China's 3D bio printer 'Re-human' to create scaffolds for cardiac repair

China unveiled their Regenovo 3D bio-printer. Unlike other 3D printers, which work with plastic or metal powder, Regenovo prints living tissue.

This 3D bio printer can print down to 15 microns and operate with temperatures ranging between 0 and 300 degrees Celsius. These advantages allow much wider material selection for 3D printing. Currently Unique has successfully printed scaffolds and bones with different precision and shapes using cultivated cells, for example the scaffolds for heart tissue constructs. Theoretically, when the biodegradable 3D printed scaffold is implanted into human body, it will be absorbed by the body in about a year.

According to Zhou GongYao, developer of Re-human, the team will soon apply for clinic trials of 3D printed scaffolds and bones. As soon as it obtains approval from medical institutions, it can then be applied to the human body.

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20130820-china-first-3d-bio-printer-to-create-scaffolds-for-cardiac-repair.html

New drug mimics the beneficial effects of exercise

A drug known as SR9009, which is currently under development at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), increases the level of metabolic activity in skeletal muscles of mice. Treated mice become lean, develop larger muscles and can run much longer distances simply by taking SR9009, which mimics the effects of aerobic exercise. If similar effects can be obtained in people, the reversal of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and perhaps Type-II diabetes might be the very welcome result.

The drug was developed by Professor Thomas Burris, who found that it was able to reduce obesity in populations of mice. It binds to and activates a protein called Rev-ErbAα, which influences fat and sugar burning in the liver, production of fat cells, and the body's inflammatory response.

"We do have indications that the effects of the drug are very similar to what you see with someone who has metabolic disorder who starts exercising," Burris stated in a Voice Of America interview. "They see a decrease in cholesterol, a decrease in triglycerides, an improvement in glucose metabolism. And a lot of this is due to transforming the muscle into a more metabolically active muscle."

http://www.gizmag.com/scripps-drug-sr9009-exercise-mimic/28651/