3D-printed muscle-tendon units can mimic real movement and last longer, opening doors for robotics and medical use. Scientists have created a new type of “living” robotic muscle by 3D bioprinting muscle and tendon cells together. This breakthrough makes tiny muscle–tendon units (MTUs) that can contract, move, and even stay active for months. These bioactuators could one day power soft robots, help test medicines, or even repair damaged human tissues (1✔ ✔Trusted SourceMulticellular muscle-tendon bioprinting of mechanically optimized musculoskeletal bioactuators with enhanced force transmission Go to source ). Advertisement More Powerful and Smooth Movements Older forms of bioengineered muscles lacked strength…

A heart attack might not just be about cholesterol. It could start with a virus waking hidden bacteria inside your arteries. Highlights: Atherosclerotic plaques may contain hidden bacterial biofilms protected from the immune system Viral infections can activate these biofilms, leading to inflammation, plaque rupture, and heart attack This discovery may transform diagnostics and enable heart disease vaccines in the future Heart attacks may not be caused solely by cholesterol, but also by hidden bacterial biofilms that emerge following viral infections. This discovery has the potential to alter prevention and therapy, including the development of heart disease…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain An AI algorithm based only on routine mammogram images plus age can predict a woman’s risk of major cardiovascular disease as well as standard risk assessment methods, finds research published online in the journal Heart. And because it uses existing health infrastructure, routine mammography may offer a cost-effective ‘two for one’ effective screening option for women, suggest the researchers. Cardiovascular disease and its risk factors are underrecognized and undertreated in women, and risk prediction algorithms have underperformed in them, point out the researchers. And while newer risk scores perform better in women than in men, they…