How can we fabricate an artificial brain that mimics the natural brain, from structure to function?

In response to this question, researchers from Xi’an Jiaotong University published a review paper outlining the primary requirements and challenges in biomanufacturing brain-like tissue, summarizing the existing technologies, strategies, and characteristics, and reviewing the cutting-edge developments in biomanufacturing central neural repair prosthetics, brain development models, brain disease models, and brain-inspired biocomputing models.

This review helps readers systematically understand the challenges, current progress, and future directions of brain-like living tissue manufacturing.

POSTECH Team unveils new technology that uses light’s color and spin to display multiple images.

Plasmonic nanoantennas provide unique opportunities for precise control of light-matter coupling in surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy, but most of the resonant systems realized so far suffer from the obstacles of low sensitivity, narrow bandwidth, and asymmetric Fano resonance perturbations. Here, we demonstrated an overcoupled resonator with a high plasmon-molecule coupling coefficient (µ) (OC-Hµ resonator) by precisely controlling the radiation loss channel, the resonator-oscillator coupling channel, and the frequency detuning channel. We observed a strong dependence of the sensing performance on the coupling state, and demonstrated that OC-Hµ resonator has excellent sensing properties of ultra-sensitive (7.25% nm^-1), ultra-broadband (3-10 µm), and immune asymmetric Fano lineshapes. These characteristics represent a breakthrough in SEIRA technology and lay the foundation for specific recognition of biomolecules, trace detection, and protein secondary structure analysis using a single array (array size is 100 × 100 µm²). In addition, with the assistance of machine learning, mixture classification, concentration prediction and spectral reconstruction were achieved with the highest accuracy of 100%. Finally, we demonstrated the potential of OC-Hµ resonator for SARS-CoV-2 detection. These findings will promote the wider application of SEIRA technology, while providing new ideas for other enhanced spectroscopy technologies, quantum photonics and studying light-matter interactions.

Laser-based metal processing enables the automated and precise production of complex components, whether for the automotive industry or for medicine. However, conventional methods require time- and resource-consuming preparations. Researchers at Empa in Thun are using machine learning to make laser processes more precise, more cost-effective and more efficient.