医学

大脑成像技术开辟医疗新境界

    许多疾病要想治愈，或许要等到科学家完全了解了人类大脑之后才有可能。但目前这个“复杂的机器”仍存在诸多未解之谜。

    未来十年，科学家们将尝试绘制大脑图像，放大单个神经元（大脑共有数十亿个神经元），用于研究每个神经元的基因信息、形状和电子信号。利用微型机器人工具，如由麻省理工学院（MIT）爱德华•博伊登和佐治亚理工学院（Georgia Tech）克雷格•弗雷斯特共同研发的“自动补丁”，研究人员有望关闭单个细胞，并借助相邻细胞来重新绘制图形。人类需要在接受大量培训后才能手动检查神经细胞，相比之下，机器人的速度却要快得多。

    诊断单个神经元的障碍使定向基因疗法成为可能。随着这种疗法成本下降，侵入性降低，越来越多的病人将有机会接受这种借助高科技工具的治疗。如果大脑成像技术取得成功，第一批可治愈的神经障碍疾病会是哪些呢？应该就是杜列特氏综合症和嗜睡症。

    ——亚历克斯•康拉德

    译者：乔树静/阿龙

Medicine

A map of the brain leads to cures

    The key to curing many diseases may come only when scientists fully understand the human brain, a complex machine that hasn't been completely investigated.

    Scientists will spend the next decade trying to map the mind, zooming in on single neurons (the brain has billions) to study each one's genetic information, shape, and electrical signals. Using tiny robotic tools such as an "auto patcher" -- developed by MIT's Edward Boyden and Georgia Tech's Craig Forest -- researchers will be able to turn off individual cells and plot patterns with its neighbors. The robot can check neurons much faster than humans, who need extensive training to do the process manually.

    Diagnosing the breakdowns within a neuron will allow for targeted gene therapy. As the process gets cheaper and less invasive, more patients will have access to treatment from such advanced tools. Among the first neurological disorders physicians can tackle when the brain is mapped? Tourette syndrome and narcolepsy.

    --Alex Konrad