Gene Therapy for Muscular Dystrophy

We’re one step closer to treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a severe type of the degenerative disorder that breaks down a person’s musculature. The inherited condition, most common in boys, results from a lack of dystrophin, a protein that’s essential for healthy muscles. An international team of experts developed an injection that restored the function of dystophin-expressing genes in 12 golden retrievers. The dogs saw a significant reversal of symptoms that lasted the span of the two-year study, paving the way for human trials.

Walking on Printed Glass

We started with plastics, progressed to biocompatible inks, and now we can 3-D print glass. German scientists have come up with a way to crank out strong, transparent glass using ink made of powdered glass mixed with a thick liquid compound. Once you print out the design you want, you pop it in a high-temperature oven to evaporate the liquid. And voila! Glass. Although the team isn’t the first to 3-D print glass, their technique is the first to produce strong, clear glass with a standard 3-D printer and less extreme temperatures than previous attempts.