Teenager moves video icons by imagination
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A U.S. boy has become the first teenager to play a two-dimensional video game using only the signals from his brain to make movements.
Washington University researchers say the unidentified 14-year-old St. Louis boy's achievement might lead to creation of biomedical devices that can control artificial limbs, enabling the movement of a prosthesis by just thinking about it.
Researchers placed a grid on the boy's brain to record brain surface signals -- an interface technique that uses electrocorticographic activity. Engineers programmed the video game -- Space Invaders -- to interface with the brain-machine interface system. Researchers said the youth, who suffers from epilepsy, mastered the first two levels of the game rapidly, learning nearly instantaneously. He was then presented with a more challenging version and he again mastered two levels quickly, merely by thinking about his movements.
The study was led by Dr. Eric Leuthardt, assistant professor of neurological surgery, and Daniel Moran, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.
The research involved neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience, engineering, and computer science, Leuthardt said, adding, "The end result is something we can really be proud of."
Study could revolutionize AIDS research
NEW YORK, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have created a version of HIV that replicates in human and monkey cells -- an advance that might revolutionize AIDS research.
Rockefeller University and Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center scientists say they used a combination of genetic engineering and forced adaptation in the study.
Since HIV-1 viruses won't replicate in monkey cells, researchers use monkey virus to test potential therapies and vaccines in animals. But therapies and vaccines that are effective on simian immunodeficiency virus don't necessarily translate into human success.
Now Paul Bieniasz, head of the university's Laboratory of Retrovirology, describes how he and colleagues replaced just a few parts of the human virus -- the ones responsible for blocking replication in monkey cells -- with components from SIV.
"Overall, the virus is a mixture of engineering and forced evolution," Bieniasz and the paper's first author, research assistant Theodora Hatziioannou, said. "It sounds simple, in theory, but it took us two years to do. If we can make this virus work in animals the way it works in tissue culture, it will likely change the way AIDS vaccine and therapeutics research is done."
The research appears in the journal Science.
Revolutionary map of the universe planned
HEIDELBERG, Germany, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- German astronomers are leading a worldwide effort to produce a revolutionary map and first digital "movie" of the universe.
Researchers from the Max-Planck-Institutes for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Max-Planck Institutes for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, and colleagues worldwide will use data from the University of Hawaii's new 5.9-foot (1.8 meter) PS1 telescope to discover billions of new stars, planets, galaxies and solar system objects -- including potential "killer asteroids" that threaten the Earth.
The project will also produce the most extensive 3-dimensional map of the universe ever made.
The consortium includes the two Max Planck Society institutes in Germany, the University of Hawaii, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Johns Hopkins University and a group of British universities.
The consortium will contribute the hardware and software for the telescope and data pipeline, as well as the cost of operating the survey in Hawaii for 3 1/2 years.
The astronomers said the telescope is undergoing engineering tests and will soon be equipped with the world's largest digital camera, utilizing 1.4 billion pixels.
Key to lung cancer chemo resistance found
BALTIMORE, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have discovered how a "detox" gene causes chemotherapy resistance in a common form of lung cancer.
Johns Hopkins University researchers say products made by a gene called NRF2 normally protect cells from environmental pollutants such as cigarette smoke by absorbing the materials and pumping them from the cell. Another gene called KEAP1 encodes products that halt the cleansing process. But lung cancer cells sabotage the expression of these same genes to block assault from chemotherapy drugs.
"What we're seeing is that lung cancer cells recruit and distort NRF2 and KEAP1 expression to help tumor cells evade the toxic effects of chemotherapy," said Associate Professor Shyam Biswal, who led the cell culture study.
Biswal said blocking NRF2 activity could improve the effectiveness of standard chemotherapy drugs, particularly platinum-based compounds widely used for lung cancer.
The research appears in the Oct. 3 issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.
