I remember an old friend once obsessing over cybernetic implants and how awesome we were all going to be once that happened(we had all seen Akira by that time), but I was kinda skeptical in thinking that we’d all be dead by the time that came around. However, it seems like what we only saw in movies like Star Wars and Terminator is getting closer and closer. Some blue surgeons over at UMich have somehow figured out how to graft electrodes to peripheral nerve stumps to create not only anterograde motor control, but also retrograde sensory control in animals. That’s pretty frickin impressive!

Of course again, it’s only animals and we have no idea what long term safety or efficacy data looks like, but (much like the group that was able to replicate a live beating mouse heart from mouse stem cells) it’s still a great stride forward for neuroscience and cybernetics in general.

(Saw it on dailytech again)

This isnt the first time i've heard of the name Alex Pines over at UC Berkeley. I remember my Georgetown O. Chem TA mentioning his name when we were talking about NMR/MRI stuff, and in true geek fashion I went to cyberstalk  research his work on the internet. Now 4 years later, I run into that name yet again and this time he and his group have happened upon something pretty incredible in my opinion. One of the common materials used in MR imaging is a gadolinium contrast agent which can be useful for picking up on many kinds of pathology(e.g. cancers which have tapped into their own blood vessels), but that is about as specific as it gets. What Dr. Pines and company have been working on seems to be a method of taking Xenon gas and "refining" it to the point where there is a relatively higher density of MR signal producing Xenon nuclei which can be inhaled by a patient and shuttled into bloodstream by diffusion through the alveolar membranes. This might sound kind of useless, but what if Dr. Pines were to tell you that it might be possible to hook xenon up with a biomarker or ligand that is specific for... whatever you want it to be. With some of his xenon hooked up to some ligands that have been cooking in the PET research domain for decades, maybe we are at an interesting time for noninvasive imaging that will also combine the superior imaging properties of MR with the specific metabolic imaging of PET(not that I have anything against PET/CT, but I just love the idea of MR so much more).

It's an interesting idea that is obviously still baking, but I think it bears some promise. I'd be curious to see how well the human lung does in the presence of xenon and also wonder if there's any truth to the internet suggestions of xenon gas acting as an anesthetic agent. Furthermore, I wonder whether or not the ligands would interact with other molecules, enzymes, and cells(e.g. immune system) yet still remain viable or change? Also, what are the long term effects/safety of having huffed on xenon for a little while and having it float around in your blood stream for a little bit? These are all a few of the bigger questions that can be answered in time as more research rolls into it.

In the near future, I think there is going to be a flurry of activity in companies trying to rush a product like this out to market where you could have an inhaled MRI Xenon contrast agent for those against IV's or maybe even make the claim that your MRI xenon contrast agent will stick to and highlight areas of lung cancer as small as 1 cubic millimeter. Unfortunately and understandably, clinical medicine is usually a few years behind the ball as efficacy and safety data accumulate(I dont care how fancy Dr. Pines's water bottle is because it aint as complex as a human body), but at least we're not as far behind as the legal domain when it comes to technology. Still, radiologists and oncologists might be looking at some of this exciting new stuff some time in the next 10 years if the efficacy and safety don't suck.

Credit goes to dailytech for spotting this first.