Nanotech Neural Surgery

Another potentially very important discovery in biotech, this time in neural biology. I think that it should mean that Christopher Reid's holy grail has been found: a way to regrow nerve tissue,

The researchers injected the blind hamsters at the site of their injury with a solution containing synthetically made peptides - miniscule molecules measuring just five nanometres long. Once inside the hamster's brain, the peptides spontaneously arranged into a scaffold-like criss-cross of nanofibres, which bridged the gap between the severed nerves. The scientists discovered that brain tissue in the hamsters knitted together across the molecular scaffold, while also preventing scar tissue from forming. Importantly, the newly formed brain tissue enabled the brain nerves to re-grow, restoring vision in the injured hamsters.

I didn't know from this whether it deals with the scar tissue problem in severed nerves. But going onto the MIT site's own release cleared that up, I think:

Doctors treating traumatic brain injury are confronted with a number of obstacles. When brain tissue is injured, the tissue closes itself like a skin wound. When this happens, scar tissue forms around the injury and large gaps appear where there was once continuous gray matter.
When the clear fluid containing the self-assembling peptides is injected into the area of the cut, it flows into gaps and starts to work as soon as it comes into contact with the fluid that bathes the brain.

on the basis of these results they are testing on spinal cord damage, so presumably the scarring problem is solved by this process.
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Nanotech Neural Surgery:
Filed in: repair, nerves, nanotech