We demonstrated that electrical stimulation can modify the characteristics of the lipid membrane, indicating a novel mechanism for storing memory in the human brain.

Long term potentiation (LTP) an important feature of learning and memory in the brain is sensitive to different salts (KCl, NaCl, LiCl, and TmCl3), with LiCl and TmCl3 having the most profound effect in depressing LTP, relative to KCl.

While studying how bio-inspired materials might inform the design of next-generation computers, scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory achieved a first-of-its-kind result that could have big implications for both edge computing and human health.

The cell membrane is the wall-like outer layer that separates the inside of a cell from its surrounding environment. The membrane mainly consists of lipids and proteins. Lipids are molecules that form the membrane’s fundamental structure. Proteins carry out important cellular functions. Scientists have now developed a disc-shaped artificial membrane that shows how proteins can exhibit different properties when embedded in membranes with different lipid compositions. The researchers used X-ray and neutron scattering techniques to confirm the synthetic membrane’s structure.

The cell membrane is the cell’s outermost line of defense against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 disease.