Researchers at EPFL, Heidelberg University and Roche have built a human mini-bladder to show how urine composition weakens bladder tissue, helping infections recur even after antibiotics. The work was led by John McKinney (EPFL) Matthias Lütolf (Roche Institute of Human Biology/EPFL), and Vivek Thacker (Heidelberg University) and is now published in Nature Communications.

Neuroscientist Soha Farboud of the Donders Institute at Radboud University has succeeded in adjusting activity in specific brain areas using a new technique. With ultrasonic brain stimulation, she was able to influence whether people chose to look left or right. A key advantage of ultrasound is that, unlike existing methods, it can safely reach deep brain regions from outside the skull.

Never-before-seen 3D reconstructions of human liver tissue have been created at a cellular level. The details obtained by a team of UW Medicine and University of Washington engineers and physicians capture the spatial microstructure of multiple lobes of this multitasking organ.

In laboratory experiments, researchers have produced ear cartilage that remains form-stable in animal models. Only one element is missing to make the tissue as elastic as a natural ear.