African sleeping sickness is a serious infection caused by a parasitic microbe called Trypanosoma brucei.

Using an imaging technique called cryo-electron microscopy along with artificial intelligence, a team at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA mapped the hairlike flagellum that the microbe uses to propel itself, identifying 154 composite proteins.

Findings revealed that the parasite moves in a distinctive style, similar to a dragon boat, with unique adaptations that are essential to its ability to infect its hosts.

Using their novel FRESH 3D bioprinting technique, which allows for printing of soft living cells and tissues, Carnegie Mellon’s Feinberg lab has built a first-of-its-kind tissue model entirely out of collagen.

Inspired by the movements of a tiny parasitic worm, Georgia Tech engineers have created a 5-inch soft robot that can jump as high as a basketball hoop. Their device, a silicone rod with a carbon-fiber spine, can leap 10 feet high even though it doesn’t have legs. The researchers made it after watching high-speed video of nematodes pinching themselves into odd shapes to fling themselves forward and backward