Recent Progress in the Field of Artificial Organs

Diabetes Mellitus affects millions of adults worldwide and management, although more streamlined, is onerous and life altering. Professor Shady Farah from the Technion (Haifa, Israel) in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA) developed a living, cell-based implant that is protected from the host immune system. Typically, non-autologous transplanted cells are not protected, and therefore, the team developed a novel crystalline shield-protecting technology. The protective shield releases colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor inhibitor which blocks macrophage and monocyte activity. The therapy was able to control glucose levels after 1 month and for 1 year in immuno-competent mice. The therapy worked well in mice models with continued activity of the transplanted islet cells but failed to be protective in nonhuman primates. Although the therapy was not efficacious in non-human primates, it showed hope for a truly autonomous artificial pancreas that can monitor blood glucose, produce insulin, and release precise insulin aliquots without user intervention. -AMS. M. A. Bochenek, S. Farah, J. C. Doloff, et al. Crystallized Colony-Stimulating Factor-1 Receptor Inhibitor Protects Immunoisolated Allo But Not Xeno Transplants in Primates. Science Translational Medicine 18 (2026), eadt1055. Organelles are a fundamental component of every cell, functioning as molecular-sized organs that carry out essential biological tasks. Some organelles are enclosed by a membrane, while others are membrane-less and consist of dynamic clusters of proteins and RNA. These membrane-less structures, known as biomolecular condensates, are involved in a wide range of fundamental cellular processes, including gene expression, metabolism and disease mechanisms and if engineered, could serve as means of regulating cellular processes and function. Recently, a team of researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles reported the development of a new method based entirely on RNA. Unlike previous approaches, which relied on establishing weak interactions among engineered proteins, this new strategy uses single-strand RNA (ssRNA) nanostars, that is, short strand of 100–200 nucleotides, characterized by at least three stem-loops that fold during transcription, constituting the “arms” of the structure. Each arm carries a kissing loop motif, through which the condensation process can be finely controlled. The study, published in Nature Nanotechnology, showed that different nanostars can be engineered so as to prevent them from mixing with one another. In addition, these nanostars allow for the recruitment of small molecules and proteins. Most importantly, the researchers demonstrated that ssRNA nanostars can generate condensated within living mammalian cells, with controlled mixing patterns. Nanostar design determines key features of the condensates, including the size, interaction and subcellular localization. This approach allows researchers to introduce within the cell what the study first author Shiyi Li described as a “temporary room furnished with selected molecular tools”. In the future, programmable condensates could pave the way for the creation of synthetic organelles, opening new frontiers in nanomedicine, genetics and cell engineering.—AB. S. Li, Y. Kim, K. Wang, et al. Programmable Artificial RNA Condensates in Mammalian Cells. Nature Nanotechnology (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-026-02164-7. CorTec GmbH (Freiburg, Germany) recently announced a clinical milestone for the first participant in a trial of its Brain Interchange brain-computer interface (BCI) at the University of Washington. The participant successfully controlled a computer through thought alone, including functional use of the video game “Pong,” using the implanted Brain Interchange system and cortical electrodes placed to support motor recovery after stroke. Brain Interchange is a fully implantable, wireless, closed-loop BCI platform designed to continuously record brain activity, interpret neural signals, and deliver targeted electrical stimulation in real time. The system has received the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Breakthrough Device designation and has been accepted into the FDA Total Product Life Cycle Advisory Program. CorTec reported that this is the first known instance of a single, fully implanted wireless BCI demonstrating both therapeutic brain stimulation for stroke rehabilitation and thought-based computer control in the same patient using the same hardware. During the experimental sessions, the participant imagined moving their arm without actual movement. Cortical activity was recorded through AirRay electrodes placed on the brain surface and wirelessly transmitted to an external computer, where algorithms decoded the signals into control commands. This early milestone suggests that fully implanted, non-penetrating BCI systems may have broader potential beyond neuromodulation alone, including assistive computer control. Further clinical data will be needed to establish long-term safety, reliability, and therapeutic benefit in larger patient cohorts.—JDU. https://www.massdevice.com/cortec-bci-patient-control-computer-thought/. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.