Light-powered pacemaker is thinner than a human hair
A featherlight pacemaker, powered by light and thinner than a human hair, can be implanted to regulate heart activity.
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A featherlight pacemaker, powered by light and thinner than a human hair, can be implanted to regulate heart activity.
Human bodies occasionally require a boost. Pacemakers are tiny devices that control the electrical impulses in the heart to maintain a regular heartbeat for millions of Americans. However, researchers hope to make these gadgets even more compact and unobtrusive to minimize difficulties.
Bozhi Tian and his laboratory at the University of Chicago are taking inspiration from nature to engineer new systems with a range of potential applications.
Coronaviruses (CoVs) have the largest genome among RNA viruses and a proofreading exoribonuclease (nsp14) responsible for high-fidelity RNA synthesis. These properties make CoVs very attractive for the establishment of vaccine platforms or viral vectors since they can stably store large amounts of information without genome integration. Using Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) as a model, a propagation-deficient RNA replicon was generated by removing the envelope (E) gene (essential for viral morphogenesis and involved in virulence) and accessory genes 3, 4a, 4b, and 5 (re...