Scientists have made an important step toward developing computers advanced enough to simulate complex natural phenomena at the quantum level. While these types of simulations are too cumbersome or outright impossible for classical computers to handle, photonics-based quantum computing systems could provide a solution. 

A team of researchers from the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences developed a new chip-scale optical quantum simulation system that could help make such a system feasible. The team, led by Qiang Lin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and optics, report the findings in Nature Photonics.

Lin’s team ran the simulations in a synthetic space that mimics the physical world by controlling the frequency, or color, of quantum entangled photons as time elapses.

“For the first time, we have been able to produce a quantum-correlated synthetic crystal,” says Lin. “Our approach significantly extends the dimensions of the synthetic space, enabling us to perform simulations of several quantum-scale phenomena such as random walks of quantum entangled photons.”

The work could lead to more intricate simulations in the future.

(Getty Images)

Researchers have discovered a new pathway for delivering gene therapy to the inner ear, which could help restore adult hearing loss due to aging or noise exposure.

The discovery was possible by harnessing the natural flow of fluids in the brain and employing a little-understood backdoor into the cochlea. When combined to deliver a gene therapy that repairs inner ear hair cells, the researchers were able to restore hearing in deaf mice.

“These findings demonstrate that cerebrospinal fluid transport comprises an accessible route for gene delivery to the adult inner ear and may represent an important step towards using gene therapy to restore hearing in humans,” says Maiken Nedergaard, senior author of the new study in the journal Science Translational Medicine and codirector of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen.

Learn more about the “cochlear aqueduct.”

Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval of a new drug to treat ambulatory pediatric patients aged 4–5 years with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). This is the first gene therapy approved to treat this debilitating and fatal disease found almost exclusively in boys.

Emma Ciafaloni is a neuromuscular neurologist with the University of Rochester Medical Center Department of Neurology and Golisano Children’s Hospital, and director of the UR Medicine Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Clinic, which treats boys with DMD from across upstate New York.

Ciafaloni has been involved in DMD clinical research for decades and URMC was one of the first three sites in the nation to start dosing patients in the phase three clinical trial for the new gene therapy. 

Ciafaloni remarks on the new therapy’s importance.

Wednesday, July 19, 2–3 p.m. EDT
Virtual

This one-hour webinar from the River Campus Libraries will go over tips and tricks on how to create a data management plan for the NSF under the current requirements, different resources and services available for you here at Rochester, and the new NSF Public Access Policy, which will go live on January 1, 2025. Learn more and register.

Wednesday, July 19, 3–4 p.m. EDT
Virtual

The Study Coordinators Organization for Research & Education (SCORE) is part of the University of Rochester Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Join the SCORE July meeting for an overview of the policies governing clinicaltrials.gov, and the essentials of working in the system and with your institutional PRS administrator. We will also review the current status of the modernization effort and what is yet to come. Get the details.

Apply by Monday, July 24, 5 p.m.

Research teams with at least one Rochester faculty member can get up to $10,000 to support early-phase research projects that improve health equity and incorporate effective translation, distribution, and/or use of evidence-based interventions and policies in real-world settings. The Equity-Focused Dissemination and Implementation (EQ-DI) Pipeline-to-Pilot Award is available through Rochester’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Find out more.

Sign up by Thursday, August 17

Registration is now open for the Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Training Program offered each year by the University of Rochester Clinical and Translational Science Institute. In the course, community members and University faculty, staff, and students learn a collaborative approach to research that involves community members or recipients of health interventions during all phases of the research process and recognizes the unique strengths of each research team member. Register for the 2023–24 course.