Press Release

MinJee's recent work published at Journal of Neural Engineering has been highlighted in mass media. 

"Triangles guide the way for live neural circuits in a dish

Korean scientists have used tiny stars, squares and triangles as a toolkit to create live neural circuits in a dish.

 They hope the shapes can be used to create a reproducible neural circuit model that could be used for learning and memory studies as well as drug screening applications; the shapes could also be integrated into the latest neural tissue scaffolds to aid the regeneration of neurons at injured sites in the body, such as the spinal cord.

Published today, 20 July, in IOP Publishing’s Journal of Neural Engineering, the study, by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), found that triangles were the most effective shape for helping to facilitate the growth of axons and guide them onto specific paths to form a complete circuit.
Co-author of the study, Professor Yoonkey Nam, said: “Eventually, we want to know if we can design a neural tissue model that biologically mimics some neural circuits in our brain.”  

A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information around the body. The neuron is composed of three main parts: a cell body, or soma, dendrites and an axon, which extends from the soma and links to other cells, creating a network. ..."

IOP press release:http://www.iop.org/news/12/july/page_56583.html

See the featured articles in International Business Times article (link) and Zdnet (link).