Month: January 2016
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Of Muscles and Men: Synthetic Skeletal Muscle
We live in an age where new bionic limb models appear every week and tissues can be 3D-printed. Considering these exciting advances, it should come as no surprise that researchers are coming closer to engineering functional skeletal muscle. “We’re trying to engineer skeletal muscle as a whole tissue to make it as functional as possible,…
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Measuring the Mechanical Forces of Disease
“All these complicated diseases that we don’t have a good handle on — they all have this mechanical component. Well why is that?” This is exactly the question Brent Hoffman, Duke biomedical engineering assistant professor, is helping answer. Many of the common diseases that we fear have a mechanical component. In asthma attacks, a chemical…
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Where Memory Meets Imagination
Imagine two scenarios. In the first, one of your close friends is driving down the road when, from behind, they hear the sound of wailing sirens. They pull off onto a sidestreet and ten minutes later they’re back on the road, holding a fresh speeding ticket. In the second, imagine the exact same scenario, but…