February 07, 2017

World's tiniest hammer may help understand brain injuries



 Researchers have created the world's tiniest hammer to precisely measure how force affects
brain cells, an advance that might pave the way for better treatments against traumatic brain
injuries and Alzheimer's.

Researchers at University of California have built a tiny machine called microHammer.
“Mechanical forces have been shown to impact cells a lot,“ said Kimberly Turner from UC.
Far from being isolated units of life, cells stem cells in particular take cues from their
environment that, for example, direct them to differentiate into one type of cell or another, or
to start healing processes. However, a major limitation to understanding the reactions of
individual cells to forces has been the inability to reliably apply impact or pressure to them.
MicroHammer, a cellular-scale machine built to tap, strike, squeeze and poke individual
neural progenitors elicits responses that will then be studied and recorded to add to a body of
knowledge that can help unlock the mysteries of the brain.

Source: The Times of India

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