Sanchez: “These new technologies allow us to directly interface with the brain. We’re able to implant electrodes into neural tissue, sense that activity, translate that activity into control commands for a computer in the prosthetic arm.”

It all starts with implanting devices into the brain programmed with complex algorithms that interpret thoughts. It could all result in prosthetics that behave more naturally and efficiently.

Sanchez: “Patients that have paralysis or stroke, a variety of movement disorders, or even soldiers returning from Iraq who have lost a limb, could potentially benefit from this kind of technology. They would think about trying to control a prosthetic arm and that arm would move in response to their thoughts.”

And the device that makes that happen will keep learning and adapting along the way.

Testing a new class of blood pressure drugs, University of Florida researchers have been working to enhance a key enzyme called Ace-2. The enhanced Ace-2 enzyme helps relax blood vessels. But researcher David Ostrov and his team found that the enzyme has another more surprising effect.

Ostrov: “Not only did these compounds work in terms of reducing blood pressure and lowering heart rate, but they had a dramatic result that was not entirely anticipated and that result is that we are actually capable of reversing fibrosis, which means we are actually capable of reversing scarring in the heart and the kidney.”

When the study began, researchers had thought the enzyme might stop or inhibit that scarring, but it proved even more successful than that.

Ostrov: “If you think about it, we’re reversing scarring. There are currently no drugs capable of reversing scarring in any context that I’m aware of. But apparently this drug we’ve discovered has that property.”

Human trials may not start for several years, but researchers say their results suggest they may have found a key to combatting various forms of scarring.

This headset can reduce the loud and repetitive noises magnetic resonance imaging machines make. The sounds created by powerful magnets range from whirring to grinding noises as loud as a jet engine. Patients already stressed out from the experience often wiggle around because of the noise. Engineer Stephen Forguson says that causes a problem.

Forguson: “Any motion inside while they’re taking those pictures can cause image distortion and they’ll have to restart, so just for the patient’s side, having a quieter environment is more beneficial.”

Fewer repeat exams can also free up the machine for other patients. The MRI presented special challenges in designing the headset, since any metal in the chamber can distort the images.

Forguson: “All these were hard technical difficulties to overcome, but mostly it’s that we couldn’t put any electronics in there. And we had to come up with a new way to cancel noise that really had never been done as far as we could tell.”

The system pipes in sounds on top of the repetitive noises the MRI makes. So far engineers have reduced noise similar to an MRI by fifteen decibels.