A team of researchers at Rutgers University has employed artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to formulate therapeutic proteins. The team was able to successfully stabilize an enzyme that can degrade scar tissues resulting from spinal cord injuries. It can also promote tissue regeneration.  The study was published in Advanced Healthcare Materials.  Stabilizing the Enzyme The […]

By employing artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to formulate therapeutic proteins, a team led by Rutgers researchers has successfully stabilized an enzyme able to degrade scar tissue resulting from spinal cord injuries and promote tissue regeneration. The study, recently published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, details the team's ground-breaking stabilization of the enzyme Chondroitinase ABC, (ChABC) offering new hope for patients coping with spinal cord injuries. "This study represents one of the first times artificial intelligence and robotics have been used to formulate highly sensitive therapeutic proteins and extend their activity by such a large amount. It's a major scientific achievement," says Adam Gormley, the project's principal investigator and an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering (SOE) at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Gormley expresses that his research is also motivated, in part, by a personal connection to spinal cord injury.

Researchers from Brown University and Intel Corp. are working together to develop new artificial intelligence-based technologies aimed at helping victims of spinal injuries walk again. When someone suffers an injury to the spinal cord, the electrical signals from the brain can no longer pass to the muscles, which leads to paralysis. Such injuries are devastating because the human body cannot regenerate severed nerve fibers by itself. But medical professionals believe that AI technologies could help some victims to regain control of their muscles. Now, backed by a $6.3 million grant from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the researchers from Brown University and Intel are embarking on a two-year effort to create those technologies.