Researchers Show that Thoughts Can Control Genes

      Researchers have formed a new gene network that can be controlled simply by your thoughts. This was made possible by thought-specific brain waves that control the conversion of genes into proteins or in another term, gene expression. Martin Fussenegger, professor of biotechnology, and Bio-engineering at the department of Biosystems heads this project. Professor Fusseneger says the inspiration for this idea came through a video game where the player uses a sensor on their forehead to control game-play activity.

      But how does this all work? An EEG headset was to record the brain-wave activities. These specific thoughts were analyzed and transmitted wirelessly  to a controller. Then, a light is emitted from an LED lamp in a near infrared range that illuminates a culture chamber containing genetically modified cells. The experiments were done on mice and a human model was used to distinguish between the humans. To regulate the quantity of released proteins, the various mice were separated by its ability to express genes.
     This article raises many positive solutions to diseases. For example, this could potentially give way to neurological diseases such as chronic headaches, epilepsy, etc. These specific brain-waves could maybe be detected in early stages of development of a disease. Finding it in an early stage will give doctors a better opportunity to combat these problems.

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141111111317.htm

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