Nano restores vision to rats

[jkellmd]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20060314/hl_hsn/nanotechnologymayrepairdamagedbrains

 

Partial vision has been to restored to rats using nano-sized peptide scaffolds, which provide structure for growth of brain cells.

 

WOW. Superman may walk again, after all. Good news for Dick Clark.

[InfiniteNow]

The study included young and adult hamsters with severed neural pathways. The animals were injected with a solution containing certain kinds of peptides (protein fragments) that create a mesh or scaffold of tiny, interwoven fibers. Brain cells are able to grow on this mesh.

 

 

Within about six weeks, the hamsters had regained useful vision and the adults' brains responded as well as the younger animals' brains.

 

 

"This is not about restoring 100 percent of damaged brain cells, but 20 percent or even less may be enough to restore function, and that is our goal," Ellis-Behnke said.

 

 

Very cool indeed.