Human brain atlas with highest resolution

The dream of a neuroscientist is to have an accurare representation of the human brain and now we are closer than ever to that ideal with BigBrain, a digital reconstruction of the human brain full 3D and ultra-high resolution. BigBrain is the essential tool neurological laboratories worldwide need in order to elucidate the form and function of our brains.

Processing the brain layers - Amunts, Zilles, Evan et al (Science)

It is true that there are currently other brain atlas, but they only arrive at the macroscopic level, or visible. Its resolution only reaches the level of a cubic millimeter, and in that volume of brain, 1,000 neurons can easily fit. The new BigBrain offers a resolution very close to cellular dimension, according to scientists who have created it. That means you get to discriminate each small circuit of neurons that is behind our mental activity, which may include all available information on the brain, from genes and neurotransmitter receptors to cognition and behavior.

To construct BigBrain, researchers have taken samples from a patient 7400. The reference brain is based on a woman who died at age 65, which was sliced in 7,400 histological sections of just 20 microns. The BigBrain, according to its creators, opens the way for understanding the neurobiological basis of cognition, language and emotion, and also to investigate neurological diseases and develop drugs against them. The model is presented in Science and will be available for registered users at http://bigbrain.cbrain.mcgill.ca.

First implant of a bioartificial blood vessel

Doctors at Duke University Hospital have announced the first successful implant of a bioartificial blood vessel created in the laboratory by the company Humacyte. The first patient to receive the implant was a man of 62 years with kidney failure who, after two hours of surgery, received a vein graft on 5 June.

The vein was designed using donated human cells growing on a scaffold tube to form a container that is specially treated to clean all the qualities that might trigger an immune response rejection.

"In pre-clinical testing, the veins have performed better than other synthetic implants and those of animal origin. This is a pioneering event in medicine, "said Jeffrey H. Lawson, MD, PhD, a vascular surgeon and vascular biologist at Duke University. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a phase 1 trial involving 20 patients on dialysis in the United States. Initial testing focuses on the implantation of blood vessels in a convenient place in the arms of renal patients on hemodialysis. 

Initially, the researchers sought to develop veins using a person's own cells growing in a scaffold, reducing the risk of implanted tissue rejection in the patient's body. But because of the long time required for mass production this method was discarded, so that investigators changed course to develop a universal product using donated human tissue.

Million people worldwide require hemodialysis which often needs a graft to connect an artery to a vein to accelerate the flow of blood during treatment. Current options have drawbacks as synthetic vascular grafts are prone to clotting, causing frequent hospitalizations. This graft also could be used for coronary bypass or to replace blocked vessels in limbs. With no doubt it is a great advance in medicine that promises many benefits.

http://www.humacyte.com/

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