Protein designers have now created new calcium channels, built bottom-up from scratch. Naturally occurring ion channels, present in the membrane of excitable cells, generate electrical impulses. These electrophysiological signals help direct muscle contraction, the heartbeat and the release of neurotransmitters. Synthetic ion channels could serve as tools for biomedical research, from neuroscience experiments to heart biology models and synthetic cell signaling circuits. 

A joint research team from POSTECH, Eunpyeong St. Mary’s Hospital, and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies has developed a 3D-bioprinted retina-on-a-chip and retinal vein occlusion model.

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS, President Lee Ho Seong) has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based image segmentation algorithm that can rapidly reconstruct three-dimensional (3D) structures from two-dimensional (2D) cross-sectional images of biological samples captured using a scanning electron microscope (SEM).