Bioengineering

No one knows exactly how flatworms can rebuild their entire bodies from the tiniest sliver. Now, bioengineers and materials scientists are building new tools to study the worms’ awesome regenerative powers.

Stanford researchers have developed synthetic proteins that can rewire cancer cells in a lab dish by co-opting critical disease-associated pathways.

Through a combination of biometric tracking, simulated modeling and medical imaging, Stanford researchers have detailed how hits to the side of the head may cause concussion.

Researchers at Stanford demonstrated that direct stimulation of fewer than two dozen neurons linked to social interaction was enough to suppress a mouse’s drive to feed itself.

Figuring out how bacteria bring in nutrients could point to ways of killing them without poison. More generally, this research could also reveal how small organisms cooperate by generating networks of flow patterns.

Watching the movement of every cell in an adult animal all at once, the Prakash lab discovered ultra-fast cellular contractions. This research suggests a new role for cellular contractions in tissue cohesion.

Three Bay Area high school football teams have been outfitted with mouthguards that measure head motion. Stanford scientists hope to use the data to better understand what causes concussions.

A bioengineering lab has found that Euglena, a microscopic organism that has been studied for hundreds of years, swims in precise polygons when exposed to increased light intensity.

The way the head and neck are positioned during a head-on impact may significantly affect the risk of concussion, but tensed up neck muscles seem to offer far less protection, Stanford researchers found.

Boosting efforts to fight antibiotic resistance, Stanford researchers have found that a thin membrane, thought to be just a shrink wrap around some bacterial cell walls, has structural properties critical for survival.

Teams are taking part in a Stanford competition to train virtual musculoskeletal models with a prosthetic leg to walk and run.