Researchers have shown it’s possible to temporarily block the brain from forming new memories using a combination of sound waves, viruses and drugs.
Using ultrasound blasts California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers have been able to temporarily open the brain’s protective barrier to treatments, where usually surgery would be required.
In this way they hope it could one day be possible to non-invasively manage epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions that currently rely on going under the knife.
However in the shorter term it is more likely the advance, dubbed “acoustically targeted chemogenetics” in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering on Monday, will enhance scientists ability to understand these conditions in animal trials.
“By using sound waves and known genetic techniques, we can, for the first time, non-invasively control specific brain regions and cell types as well as the timing of when neurons are switched on or off,” said assistant professor of chemical engineering Mikhail Shapiro.
It is possible to use a virus to implant a desired genetic change in the DNA of cells and this allows certain functions of the cell to be switched on or off in response to an instruction from a tailor-made drug.
However getting these instructions across the blood-brain barrier, which keeps out all but the smallest molecules and evolved to protect the sensitive organ from poisons and invaders like viruses, remains a problem.
Science news in pictures
1/24
Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever.
This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star.
ESO/A. Müller et al
2/24 New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists
Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the “interstitium”.
These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins
Getty
3/24 Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists
Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest.
These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs
José Iriarte
4/24 One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds
More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test.
Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly.
Getty
5/24 Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter’s great red spot
The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image’s colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth.
Pictures by: Tom Momary
6/24 A 3D reconstruction of an African grey parrot post euthanasia
Included in Wellcome Image Awards, this 3D image of an African grey parrot shows the highly intricate system of blood vessels.
Scott Birch. Wellcome Images
7/24 Baby Hawaiian bobtail squid
Another Wellcome Images Award winner, this time of baby Hawaiian bobtail squid. The black ink sac and light organ in the centre of the squid’s mantle cavity can be clearly seen.
Macroscopic Solutions. Wellcome Images
8/24 Skeletons of 5,000-year-old Chinese ‘giants’ discovered by archaeologists
The people are thought to have been unusually tall and strong. The tallest of the skeletons uncovered measured at 1.9m
YouTube
9/24 Nasa discovers 75,000 mile-wide hole in the Sun
Sunspots are caused by interactions with the Sun’s magnetic field and are cooler areas on the star’s surface.
Nasa
10/24 View(active tab) Apple News Breaking news email Edit Revisions Workflow Clear Cache NewsScience 132 million-year-old dinosaur fossil found at factory in Surrey
Paleontologists Sarah Moore and Jamie Jordan believe they have discovered a Iguanodon dinosaur, a herbivore that was around three metres tall and 10 metres long
Cambridge Photographers/Wienerberger
11/24 Discovering life on Mars is less likely as researchers find toxic chemicals on its surface
The Echus Chasma, one of the largest water source regions on Mars
Getty Images
12/24 The Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest in the United States and third largest in the world, is seen in Yellowstone National Park.
The park is famous for its geothermal activity – which includes its spectacular, flowing springs as well as the famous “Old Faithful” geyser that sprays water out every hour or so.
REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
13/24 An iris clip fitted onto the eye
This images is apart of the Wellcome Images Awards and shows how an artificial intraocular lens is fitted onto the eye. Used for conditions such as myopia and cataracts.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS FT. Wellcome Images
14/24 The Syrian civil war has caused the first ever withdrawal from the ‘doomsday bank’
Researchers in the Middle East have asked for seeds including those of wheat, barley and grasses, all of which are chosen because especially resistant to dry conditions. It is the first withdrawal from the bank, which was built in 2008.
Those researchers would normally request the seeds from a bank in Aleppo. But that centre has been damaged by the war — while some of its functions continue, and its cold storage still works, it has been unable to provide the seeds that are needed by the rest of the Middle East, as it once did.
15/24 Scientists find exactly what human corpses smell like
New research has become the first to isolate the particular scent of human death, describing the various chemicals that are emitted by corpses in an attempt to help find them in the future.
The researchers hope that the findings are the first step towards working on a synthetic smell that could train cadaver dogs to be able to more accurately find human bodies, or to eventually developing electronic devices that can look for the scent themselves.
16/24 Black hole captured eating a star then vomiting it back out
Astronomers have captured a black hole eating a star and then sicking a bit of it back up for the first time ever. The scientists tracked a star about as big as our sun as it was pulled from its normal path and into that of a supermassive black hole before being eaten up. They then saw a high-speed flare get thrust out, escaping from the rim of the black hole. Scientists have seen black holes killing and swallowing stars. And the jets have been seen before.But a new study shows the first time that they have captured the hot flare that comes out just afterwards. And the flare and then swallowed star have not been linked together before
17/24 Dog-sized horned dinosaur fossil found shows east-west evolutionary divide in North America
A British scientist has uncovered the fossil of a dog-sized horned dinosaur that roamed eastern North America up to 100 million years ago. The fragment of jaw bone provides evidence of an east-west divide in the evolution of dinosaurs on the North American continent. During the Late Cretaceous period, 66 to 100 million years ago, the land mass was split into two continents by a shallow sea. This sea, the Western Interior Seaway, ran from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. Dinosaurs living in the western continent, called Laramidia, were similar to those found in Asia
18/24 ‘Male and female brains’ aren’t real
Brains cannot be categorised into female and male, according to the first study to look at sex differences in the whole brain. Specific parts of the brain do show sex differences, but individual brains rarely have all “male” traits or all “female” traits. Some characteristics are more common in women, while some are more common in men, and some are common in both men and women, according to the study
19/24 Life on Earth appeared hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought
Life may have come to earth 4.1 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of years earlier than we knew. The discovery, made using graphite that was trapped in ancient crystals, could mean that life began “almost instantaneously” after the Earth was formed. The researchers behind it have described the discovery as “a potentially transformational scientific advance”. Previously, life on Earth was understood to have begun when the inner solar system was hit by a massive bombardment from space, which also formed the moon’s craters
20/24 Nasa confirms Mars water discovery
Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae — or dark patches — on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts.
21/24 Earth could be at risk of meteor impacts
Earth could be in danger as our galaxy throws out comets that could hurtle towards us and wipe us out, scientists have warned. Scientists have previously presumed that we are in a relatively safe period for meteor impacts, which are linked with the journey of our sun and its planets, including Earth, through the Milky Way. But some orbits might be more upset than we know, and there is evidence of recent activity, which could mean that we are passing through another meteor shower. Showers of meteors periodically pass through the area where the Earth is, as gravitational disturbances upset the Oort Cloud, which is a shell of icy objects on the edge of the solar system. They happen on a 26-million year cycle, scientists have said, which coincide with mass extinctions over the last 260-million years
22/24 Genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs
Chinese scientists have created genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs, after editing the genes of the animals for the first time. The scientists create beagles that have double the amount of muscle mass by deleting a certain gene, reports the MIT Technology Review. The mutant dogs have “more muscles and are expected to have stronger running ability, which is good for hunting, police (military) applications”, Liangxue Lai, one of the researchers on the project. Now the team hope to go on to create other modified dogs, including those that are engineered to have human diseases like muscular dystrophy or Parkinson’s. Since dogs’ anatomy is similar to those of humans’, intentionally creating dogs with certain human genetic traits could allow scientists to further understand how they occur
23/24 Researchers discover ‘lost world’ of arctic dinosaurs
Scientists say that the new dinosaur, known as Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis, “challenges everything we thought about a dinosaur’s physiology”. Florida State University professor of biological science Greg Erickson said: “It creates this natural question. How did they survive up here?”
24/24 A team of filmmakers in the US have made the first ever scale model of the Solar System in a Nevada desert
Illustrations of the Earth and moon show the two to be quite close together, Mr Overstreet said. This is inaccurate, the reason being that these images are not to scale.
1/24
Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever.
This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star.
ESO/A. Müller et al
2/24 New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists
Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the “interstitium”.
These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins
Getty
3/24 Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists
Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest.
These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs
José Iriarte
4/24 One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds
More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test.
Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly.
Getty
5/24 Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter’s great red spot
The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image’s colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth.
Pictures by: Tom Momary
6/24 A 3D reconstruction of an African grey parrot post euthanasia
Included in Wellcome Image Awards, this 3D image of an African grey parrot shows the highly intricate system of blood vessels.
Scott Birch. Wellcome Images
7/24 Baby Hawaiian bobtail squid
Another Wellcome Images Award winner, this time of baby Hawaiian bobtail squid. The black ink sac and light organ in the centre of the squid’s mantle cavity can be clearly seen.
Macroscopic Solutions. Wellcome Images
8/24 Skeletons of 5,000-year-old Chinese ‘giants’ discovered by archaeologists
The people are thought to have been unusually tall and strong. The tallest of the skeletons uncovered measured at 1.9m
YouTube
9/24 Nasa discovers 75,000 mile-wide hole in the Sun
Sunspots are caused by interactions with the Sun’s magnetic field and are cooler areas on the star’s surface.
Nasa
10/24 View(active tab) Apple News Breaking news email Edit Revisions Workflow Clear Cache NewsScience 132 million-year-old dinosaur fossil found at factory in Surrey
Paleontologists Sarah Moore and Jamie Jordan believe they have discovered a Iguanodon dinosaur, a herbivore that was around three metres tall and 10 metres long
Cambridge Photographers/Wienerberger
11/24 Discovering life on Mars is less likely as researchers find toxic chemicals on its surface
The Echus Chasma, one of the largest water source regions on Mars
Getty Images
12/24 The Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest in the United States and third largest in the world, is seen in Yellowstone National Park.
The park is famous for its geothermal activity – which includes its spectacular, flowing springs as well as the famous “Old Faithful” geyser that sprays water out every hour or so.
REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
13/24 An iris clip fitted onto the eye
This images is apart of the Wellcome Images Awards and shows how an artificial intraocular lens is fitted onto the eye. Used for conditions such as myopia and cataracts.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS FT. Wellcome Images
14/24 The Syrian civil war has caused the first ever withdrawal from the ‘doomsday bank’
Researchers in the Middle East have asked for seeds including those of wheat, barley and grasses, all of which are chosen because especially resistant to dry conditions. It is the first withdrawal from the bank, which was built in 2008.
Those researchers would normally request the seeds from a bank in Aleppo. But that centre has been damaged by the war — while some of its functions continue, and its cold storage still works, it has been unable to provide the seeds that are needed by the rest of the Middle East, as it once did.
15/24 Scientists find exactly what human corpses smell like
New research has become the first to isolate the particular scent of human death, describing the various chemicals that are emitted by corpses in an attempt to help find them in the future.
The researchers hope that the findings are the first step towards working on a synthetic smell that could train cadaver dogs to be able to more accurately find human bodies, or to eventually developing electronic devices that can look for the scent themselves.
16/24 Black hole captured eating a star then vomiting it back out
Astronomers have captured a black hole eating a star and then sicking a bit of it back up for the first time ever. The scientists tracked a star about as big as our sun as it was pulled from its normal path and into that of a supermassive black hole before being eaten up. They then saw a high-speed flare get thrust out, escaping from the rim of the black hole. Scientists have seen black holes killing and swallowing stars. And the jets have been seen before.But a new study shows the first time that they have captured the hot flare that comes out just afterwards. And the flare and then swallowed star have not been linked together before
17/24 Dog-sized horned dinosaur fossil found shows east-west evolutionary divide in North America
A British scientist has uncovered the fossil of a dog-sized horned dinosaur that roamed eastern North America up to 100 million years ago. The fragment of jaw bone provides evidence of an east-west divide in the evolution of dinosaurs on the North American continent. During the Late Cretaceous period, 66 to 100 million years ago, the land mass was split into two continents by a shallow sea. This sea, the Western Interior Seaway, ran from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. Dinosaurs living in the western continent, called Laramidia, were similar to those found in Asia
18/24 ‘Male and female brains’ aren’t real
Brains cannot be categorised into female and male, according to the first study to look at sex differences in the whole brain. Specific parts of the brain do show sex differences, but individual brains rarely have all “male” traits or all “female” traits. Some characteristics are more common in women, while some are more common in men, and some are common in both men and women, according to the study
19/24 Life on Earth appeared hundreds of millions of years earlier than previously thought
Life may have come to earth 4.1 billion years ago, hundreds of millions of years earlier than we knew. The discovery, made using graphite that was trapped in ancient crystals, could mean that life began “almost instantaneously” after the Earth was formed. The researchers behind it have described the discovery as “a potentially transformational scientific advance”. Previously, life on Earth was understood to have begun when the inner solar system was hit by a massive bombardment from space, which also formed the moon’s craters
20/24 Nasa confirms Mars water discovery
Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae — or dark patches — on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts.
21/24 Earth could be at risk of meteor impacts
Earth could be in danger as our galaxy throws out comets that could hurtle towards us and wipe us out, scientists have warned. Scientists have previously presumed that we are in a relatively safe period for meteor impacts, which are linked with the journey of our sun and its planets, including Earth, through the Milky Way. But some orbits might be more upset than we know, and there is evidence of recent activity, which could mean that we are passing through another meteor shower. Showers of meteors periodically pass through the area where the Earth is, as gravitational disturbances upset the Oort Cloud, which is a shell of icy objects on the edge of the solar system. They happen on a 26-million year cycle, scientists have said, which coincide with mass extinctions over the last 260-million years
22/24 Genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs
Chinese scientists have created genetically-engineered, extra-muscular dogs, after editing the genes of the animals for the first time. The scientists create beagles that have double the amount of muscle mass by deleting a certain gene, reports the MIT Technology Review. The mutant dogs have “more muscles and are expected to have stronger running ability, which is good for hunting, police (military) applications”, Liangxue Lai, one of the researchers on the project. Now the team hope to go on to create other modified dogs, including those that are engineered to have human diseases like muscular dystrophy or Parkinson’s. Since dogs’ anatomy is similar to those of humans’, intentionally creating dogs with certain human genetic traits could allow scientists to further understand how they occur
23/24 Researchers discover ‘lost world’ of arctic dinosaurs
Scientists say that the new dinosaur, known as Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis, “challenges everything we thought about a dinosaur’s physiology”. Florida State University professor of biological science Greg Erickson said: “It creates this natural question. How did they survive up here?”
24/24 A team of filmmakers in the US have made the first ever scale model of the Solar System in a Nevada desert
Illustrations of the Earth and moon show the two to be quite close together, Mr Overstreet said. This is inaccurate, the reason being that these images are not to scale.
Dr Shapiro and his team showed that they could overcome this with ultrasound blasts and microscopic bubbles injected into the blood stream.
When the sound waves hit the blood borne bubbles it forces them to vibrate and the jostling opens the barrier for a short time.
To demonstrate the effect of this precision tool the Caltech team targeted memory formation in mice.
They used a virus to write the instructions into neurons in a part of the brain known as the hippocampus, which is also important in Alzheimer’s disease.
Then several weeks later mice received either the drug to switch off these neurons or an injection of saline, and were subjected to electric shocks in a new room of their enclosure, and then put in the same room again the next day.
Mice which had not had their memories blanked out by the drug were twice as likely to freeze in fear when they were placed back in the room where they had been electrocuted, but other behavioural tests were unaffected.
“This method is reversible,” says Jerzy Szablowski, the lead researcher of the study. “You can administer a drug to turn off neural cells of interest, but, with time, those cells will turn back on.”
Being able to precisely target regions of the brain in this manner could equally be used in the treatment of epilepsy where sever forms require neurosurgery to remove parts of the brain responsible for lethal seizures.
“This is an impressive, innovative approach that will be useful for many neuroscientists,” says pharmacology professor Bryan Roth of the University of North Carolina, who was not involved in this study.
