Poor heart health increases risk of dementia for Black Americans

Diabetes, high blood pressure linked to degenerative diseases like dementia

University of Georgia

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Diabetes and hypertension could have a domino effect for future health problems like dementia — especially for Black Americans, according to a new University of Georgia study.

The study found that Black Americans diagnosed with both conditions in midlife had significantly higher levels of a dementia-related biomarker more than a decade later.

“This matters. This study shows that chronic conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes, especially when combined together, might start damaging the brain earlier than we thought, especially for this group,” said Rachael Weaver, corresponding author of the study and a graduate student in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of sociology.

“When these two conditions show up together in midlife, they might start a chain reaction leading to brain aging even as much as a decade later.”

Cardiovascular health may be an indicator of degenerative brain diseases like dementia

Black Americans historically show cognitive decline at higher rates and at earlier ages than white people. Uncovering physical conditions that accelerate this is crucial for improving quality of life and health outcomes, the researchers said.

The study followed more than 250 participants with high blood pressure, diabetes or both conditions.

The researchers found that while one diagnosis alone did not indicate a dramatic neurological effect, having both led to striking results.

"Taking steps early to control high blood pressure and diabetes may help protect African Americans from brain degeneration and lower their risk of dementia.” —Karlo Lei, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Those with diabetes and hypertension at midlife had elevated levels of a biomarker of dementia. Both of these diagnoses not only contributed to higher amounts of that biomarker but also a greater increase of it over an 11-year period.

“The study sends a clear message: Taking steps early to control high blood pressure and diabetes may help protect African Americans from brain degeneration and lower their risk of dementia later in life,” said Karlo Lei, co-author of the study and an associate professor in the Franklin College department of sociology.

The findings suggest that health practitioners should place a higher focus on cardiovascular health as an indicator of dementia risk, especially among Black Americans, the researchers said.

“This distinction is important because it suggests that strategies aimed at preventing or slowing cognitive decline in Black Americans may need to prioritize prevention and management of vascular diseases beginning in midlife,” said Mei Ling Ong, co-author of the study and an associate research scientist in the UGA Center for Family Research.

“Early intervention for these chronic health conditions could significantly protect brain health and reduce the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases later in life.”

Public health education in at-risk communities needed

Many of the study participants with cardiovascular issues also reported low incomes. Nearly one in five of the participants also had less than a 12th grade education. This highlights a key relationship between socioeconomic status and health outcomes.

“Health inequities like the ones that we’re exploring are not inevitable. They are very systemic, and they’re potentially preventable. Just as crucial as early screening and treatment is the need for change that addresses the structural inequities putting Black Americans at higher risk in the first place,” said Weaver.

Highlighting the connection between heart and brain health could also help encourage people to exercise, reduce their stress levels, eat healthier and limit smoking and alcohol, the researchers said.

This study was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Co-authors include Steven Beach, Regents Professor of Psychology in the Franklin College; Yu-Wen Lu, a graduate student in the Franklin College; and the late Ron Simons, Regents Professor in the UGA Department of Sociology, who passed away in March. Additional co-authors include Michelle M. Mielke.

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Journal

Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

DOI

10.1007/s40615-025-02310-2 

Article Title

Diabetes and Hypertension at Midlife Predict Increases in Biomarkers of Dementia Among Black Americans

 

OU researchers improve stability, efficiency of electrochemical devices important to sustainable energy production

University of Oklahoma

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OU Professor Hanping Ding

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Credit: Hanping Ding

Researchers from the University of Oklahoma have made significant breakthroughs in a promising technology for efficient energy conversion and chemical processing. Two recent studies involving protonic ceramic electrochemical cells, called PCECs, address significant challenges in electrochemical manufacturing and efficiency. These innovations are a crucial step toward reliable and affordable solutions for hydrogen production and clean energy storage.

The studies, published in the prestigious Nature family of scientific journals, were led by Hanping Ding, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma.

PCECs have traditionally struggled to maintain performance under the extreme conditions required for commercial use. In a study featured in Nature Synthesis, Ding and his colleagues reported a new approach that eliminates the need for cerium-based materials, which are prone to breakdown under high steam and heat. Instead, the team engineered a method to manufacture pure barium zirconate-based electrolytes that remain stable at record-low operating temperatures, a development that allows the system to run efficiently under intense electrochemical conditions.

A second study, published in Nature Communications, tackled another crucial component: the oxygen electrode. Led by Ding’s team and graduate student Shuanglin Zheng, the researchers developed a new ultra-porous nano-architecture electrode with triple phase conductivity,  meaning it can transport electrons, oxygen ions and protons, which dramatically improves electrolysis kinetics. This design allows cells to perform better under heavy use and highlights the critical role of optimizing electrode microstructure to balance surface activity and durability. This development marks a critical step toward realizing efficient, reversible, and high-performance PCECs for both hydrogen production and electricity generation.

“These findings represent significant advancements in the field of high-temperature steam electrolysis,” said Ding. “By addressing key challenges in electrolyte processing and electrode design, we are unlocking the full potential of PCECs for sustainable energy applications.”

The dual breakthroughs represent a meaningful step toward broader deployment of PCECs in hydrogen production, power generation and chemical manufacturing. In addition to improving core performance, Ding’s research offers insights relevant to other technologies, such as alkaline fuel cells, water electrolyzers and biosensors.

Together, the findings underscore OU’s expanding role in energy innovation, particularly in developing next-generation systems that aim to reduce emissions and transition global infrastructure toward more sustainable energy sources.

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Journal

Nature Synthesis

DOI

10.1038/s44160-025-00765-z 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Sintering protonic zirconate cells with enhanced electrolysis stability and Faradaic efficiency

 

What are the tradeoffs when people have to choose between clean air and clean water?

North Carolina State University

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People in many parts of the world lack access to clean water, but boiling water to make it safer often requires burning wood or other dirty fuels that expose them to air pollution. How do these two risks compare to each other? A new study suggests that, while health risks from the resulting air pollution are real, the benefits associated with boiling water generally outweigh those risks.

“In places where there is not centralized infrastructure that provides clean water, the responsibility for addressing that risk falls to individual households,” says Angela Harris, co-corresponding author of a paper on the study and an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University. “The advice to those households is often to boil the water before using it, but these households often have to rely on heating sources that carry risks of their own. The research community has generally looked at these risks separately, with less attention paid to how the risks overlap.

“Our goal with this study was to assess the risks in a way that allows us to better understand the tradeoffs people make between clean air and clean water.”

For this study, the researchers modified and integrated existing computational models designed to estimate the health effects associated with consumption of contaminated water and exposure to air pollution from cookstoves. The models account for different levels of water contamination and cookstoves that produce varying levels of pollution.

“For example, cookstoves that we accounted for in this work ranged from cooking over an open woodfire to using an electric stovetop,” says Andrew Grieshop, co-corresponding author of the paper and a professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State. “We then used the modeling framework to conduct case studies for Uganda and Vietnam, drawing on demographic and public health data from both countries.”

“Our results reflect the established science that if people only have access to highly contaminated water, then boiling that water drastically reduces risk – particularly for children,” Harris says. “And we found that if households are already using unclean cookstoves to prepare meals, then also using those cookstoves to boil water causes only an incremental increase in risk.

“In other words, the modeling suggests that this is a tradeoff worth taking, especially for households with young children.”

“By the same token, our modeling also supports previous studies that underscore the importance of reducing air pollution,” says Grieshop. “Improving ambient air quality benefits public health; boiling contaminated water improves public health; and boiling water while also transitioning to cleaner cookstoves makes a truly meaningful difference to public health.”

The researchers note that, in addition to their research findings, the modeling framework they developed may also be a useful tool for others.

“We’re optimistic that public health organizations can use the modeling framework as a starting point and improve upon it by incorporating country- or region-specific data that would make it even more accurate and useful for informing public health efforts,” Grieshop says.

“For example, public health organizations can plug in the water quality and ambient air quality of a region, or address how different communities heat their water,” says Harris. “That would allow them to draw better conclusions related to risk tradeoffs.”

The paper, “Health Trade-offs of Boiling Drinking Water with Solid Fuels: A Modeling Study,” is published in the open access journal Environmental Health Perspectives. First author of the paper is Emily Floess, a Ph.D. student at NC State. The paper was co-authored by Ayşe Ercümen, an epidemiologist and associate professor in NC State’s Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources.

The study was done with support from the National Science Foundation under grant 1743741 and from the NC State Global One Health Fellowship.

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Journal

Environmental Health Perspectives

DOI

10.1289/EHP15059 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Health Trade-offs of Boiling Drinking Water with Solid Fuels: A Modeling Study

Article Publication Date

9-May-2025

 

Exposome Moonshot launching in Washington D.C.

Global coalition assembles to set foundation for the Human Exposome, a complement to the Human Genome Project

Exposome Moonshot

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Exposome Moonshot Forum Poster

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Credit: Eliza Cole

 

Who?      500+ public health researchers, thought-leaders, policy-makers & civil society actors.

What?     Inaugural Exposome Moonshot Forum.

Where?   Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, Washington D.C.

When?    Monday May 12th to Thursday May 15th, 2025: www.exposomemoonshot.org      

 

Background: The Human Genome Project, initiated in 1990 and completed in 2003, was a global scientific effort to map and sequence all genetic material, the information needed to code life. With that code was a promise to understand the genetic roots of disease and health. Funded by the US federal institutes, such as the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, and international partners at a cost of $3 billion, it remains one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements, revolutionizing our understanding of genetics and driving medical and biotechnological advances. 

 

Today’s challenge: The Human Genome Project transformed genetic discovery, but it only tells a small part of the story. What are the environmental factors that underpin disease and health?  That’s where the Exposome comes in. From fighting childhood autism or asthma, to treating cognitive decline in our elderly, addressing the environmental and lifestyle factors affecting cancer, building supportive healthy living environments, and better regulating of environmental and psychosocial stressors such as atmospheric pollution, pesticides or food colorants and even social isolation. Better understanding these exposures is where today’s research efforts must lie. That said, science has been slow to take on this new collaborative challenge of mapping how our environments shape our all-round health from conception to death, until now. 

 

The Human Exposome marks an unprecedented change in how the world views both understanding what can harm us and fighting disease. It aims to match the Human Genome Project in its scope and ambition. The Human Exposome can provide usable metrics and data points to inform targeted public health interventions while still being in the early stages of development and planning. This has been made possible by the integration of technologies like advanced sensors, high-resolution mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, bioinformatics, expanding datasets on environmental stressors obtained through geospatial applications, and enhanced understanding of social determinants of health. All this combined with recent advances in artificial intelligence and big data analytics, is making such a discovery-driven initiative feasible and actionable, even as the initiative develops. Furthermore, this Moonshot is timed to integrate and complement ongoing research projects worldwide. From a recent Department of Defense reportcalling for the US to be more exposome-driven, the EU’s clean industrial deal, European Climate Adaptation Plan, One Health Strategy, or Cancer Mission initiatives along with increasing public awareness and academic interest, it is clear that research efforts, funding and policy-making are all pointing in the same direction: we need to chart the exposome.      

 

The Exposome Moonshot Forum, May 12-15: Liftoff to the Next Phase. The inaugural Washington D.C. event will culminate in a Declaration Ceremony, signaling a commitment to global collaboration, innovation and inclusion in shaping the future of exposomic science as a new field. This is a critical first step in establishing shared responsibility in meeting the goals identified and strategy outlined during the intensive four-day event.  

This multi-day, onsite gathering with further inputs from select speakers given remotely, is purposely intended as an open platform for discussion towards the agreement of a next-steps roadmap. To encourage new-thinking and impact-orientated suggestions, delegates will be asked to actively respond to fixed thematic panels and contribute to breakout sessions designed around four core objectives:    

• Defining the ethical, legal and societal dimensions of exposomics;
• Leveraging A.I. and big data in environmental health analytics;
• Establishing global coordination models and shared research infrastructures; &
• Crafting a launch strategy for the Human Exposome.

The Organizing Committee is actively fielding interest from individuals and organizations to join newly established global working groups. Their task will be to create a viable framework for the Exposome Moonshot to categorize, document and chart all of our biological and chemical exposures. 

 

Hearing from Experts and Participants: 

• Professor Gary Miller, Organizing Committee Member & Director of the Center for Innovative Exposomics at Columbia University speaking at the Moonshot Forum’s Opening Ceremony stated that: “For many of us, this is without doubt the greatest public health opportunity of our time. We will succeed. If we simply pool together the ongoing exposome research capabilities we have available right now, like that occurring in labs throughout the U.S. and Europe, we will already kickstart a revolution in medicine, public health and environmental protection saving countless lives.” He added that: “It is important that those of us who have been actively engaged in the scientific research do not prejudge outcomes and remain in listening mode. We must get out of our bubbles and make this a truly open, transparent and global endeavor and learn from the wide variety of stakeholders who are participating. The readiness to get involved has been tremendous. That is why there is so much palpable excitement here today.”
• Dr. Nicole Kleinstreuer, Organizing Committee Member & Acting NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives. stated that: “My background is in mathematical and computational modelling of biological systems to better represent human health and disease pathways and their susceptibility to external factors. For me, if set up correctly, mapping the Human Exposome is an absolutely essential project to understand the impact of the environment on our health and support important initiatives like chronic disease research.”.
• Professor Thomas Hartung, Organizing Committee Member & Executive Director for the Centre for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) stated that: “I’ve worn many hats in science but mapping the exposome is the biggest and most welcome challenge of my career. When you think that we know conservatively of 350,000 chemicals registered for marketing world-wide, for which we have data on less than 10% or that we add 4,500 chemicals in our food in the US with data on less than 20%, it seems like a public health world gone mad.” He added that: “The value-added of doing this for the public purse is tremendous. By correctly identifying what does and does not harm us, we not only bring up to speed 60-year-old animal tests that are 20-40% inaccurate, but we also drastically help cut the costs and administrative burdens on federal resources. Vaping alone gave us 6.7 million registered products to test. It’s unsustainable.”
• Professor Rémi Quirion, Chief Scientist of Quebec & President of the International Network for Governmental Science Advice (INGSA), Organizer of the second day’s ‘From the Lab to the Law Policy Plenary Panel’ stated that: “We have seen with GMOs and Stem Cells how difficult it can be to get everybody on-board when new technology trains are fast leaving the station. Science can get ahead of itself and the dialogue between experts, policymakers and end-user citizens has never been straight-forward. Giving and taking scientific advice are two different things.” He added: “That is precisely why the Exposome Moonshot Forum Community are hitting the nail on the head by bringing all stakeholders to the table early-on. Foresight knowledge is the only way to iron out the wrinkles and set yourselves up for success. Going forward, we at INGSA are happy to stay involved to help explain and bridge the science and policy worlds.”      
• Dr. Fenna Sillé, Organizing Committee Member, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University and Deputy Director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT), leading the exposome program and studies on how environmental exposures change the immune system, stated that: “This gathering has made it clear: from Washington to Wellington, from Dublin to Durban, there is a shared global commitment to charting a new course for public health. The exposome has emerged as a shared scientific frontier, with leadership taking shape across continents. This forum marks a historic milestone — the first exposome event of its kind to unite international stakeholders across disciplines — and a turning point toward a future where health is understood not only through our genes, but through the full complexity of our environments. Crucially, we have begun addressing the core questions of data ownership, governance, and ethical responsibility that must guide this work from the outset. The Human Exposome will redefine medicine, prevention, and equity — shifting our focus from what we inherit to include what we encounter. We are proud to have sparked this momentum here, and even more determined to carry it forward together."
• Professor Roel Vermeulen, Organizing Committee Member & Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Exposome Science at Utrecht University and the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands stated that: “Mastering the exposome is key to building a healthier, fairer future for everyone, not just in the EU but in the 46 countries of our continent and worldwide. We have many excellent, ongoing EU studies already showing remarkable results on Parkinson’s disease, chemical mixtures in the blood of pregnant women and the crucial role of socioeconomic determinants of health.” He added that: “I am very proud to have led a major exposome report at the European Parliament mapped onto seven key policy areas: cities, chemicals, climate, child health, career, clinical practice, and citizens. We are calling for investments in data and analytical infrastructures, advanced data analytics, and for the creation of a 10 million-people strong research cohort and biobank to give us the statistical power and subpopulation diversity we need to study life-course exposures and their biological impact at scale. I am confident that the carrier-wave created here in D.C. can help us form a powerful start of a Human Exposome Initiative. Watch this space, because we are creating momentum to fully integrate exposome into Europe’s data-driven health future. My personal conviction is that this important work must be a shared public good, anchored in citizen involvement and open data.”
• Professor Dimosthenis (Denis) Sarigiannis, Organizing Committee Member, Director and Chairman of the Board of the National Hellenic Research Foundation, Professor of Environmental Health Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) and the Institute for Advanced Study of Pavia (Italy), stated that: “Unraveling the human exposome is one of the noblest endeavors modern science and society can fathom. Doing so, will complete the puzzle that started to get filled by the decoding of the human genome in order to combat disease effectively, while at the same time promoting sustainable innovation for all. The Human Exposome Moonshot is a game changer in public health, environmental science and engineering and international cooperation for the benefit of mankind and the planet. Our work over the last twenty years in deciphering the exposome now has the chance to bring about real positive change on the world scene. If as the father of Medicine, Hippocrates, once said, “it is better to prevent than to treat”, the human exposome is the key to efficient and comprehensive precision prevention. The National Hellenic Research Foundation of Greece is steadfastly supporting this global initiative with all its resources.” 
• Professor Jana Klanova, Professor of Environmental Chemistry at Masaryk University and director of RECETOX, stated “Considering the thousands of chemicals we are dealing with as well as other physical, biological, socioeconomic and psychological stressors, the Human Exposome Project is even more challenging than the Human Genome was. We cannot succeed without building an international framework and sufficient infrastructural capacity to match the million human genome projects. This framework must embrace not just scientists but innovative companies, policy makers and the public. Interdisciplinary collaborations across the scientific and infrastructural domains, and the strong focus on quality, accessibility and reproducibility of data are crucial for future success.”

 

Definition: Exposome is the integrated compilation of all physical, chemical, biological and psychosocial

influences that impact the body.

 

Further Media Briefing Information 

Even though the Exposome Moonshot Forum is full and closed for general registration, the organizers are keen to involve reporters and public information officers in the discussions. Science communication is an integral part of the project’s success. 

If you would like to pre-register to attend the full conference; would like to drop-in any day; attend the technical press briefing on Thursday 15th May (details below); or if you have any follow-up questions or requests for specific comments or interviews, please contact:

Eliza Cole: ecole28@jh.edu

A technical media briefing will be held live and online at 12 PM EST Thursday, May 15th, 2025.

Please register in advance to join the virtual briefing: https://jh.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_h2Sn41zkR1CtZP0CtQRoiA

 

Useful Links:

To learn more about the Exposome Moonshot Forum and the Human Exposome Project, visit https://exposomemoonshot.org

Organizing Committee - Exposome Moonshot Forum

Event Program

 

Tiny device promises new tech with a human touch

RMIT University

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RMIT PhD scholar and study first author Thiha Aung inspects the team's neuromorphic vision device.

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Credit: Will Wright, RMIT University

Engineers at RMIT University have invented a small ‘neuromorphic’ device that detects hand movement, stores memories and processes information like a human brain, without the need for an external computer.

Team leader Professor Sumeet Walia said the innovation marked a step towards enabling instant visual processing in autonomous vehicles, advanced robotics and other next-generation applications for improved human interaction.

“Neuromorphic vision systems are designed to use similar analogue processing to our brains, which can greatly reduce the amount of energy needed to perform complex visual tasks compared with digital technologies used today,” said Walia, Director of the RMIT Centre for Opto-electronic Materials and Sensors (COMAS).

The work brings together neuromorphic materials and advanced signal processing led by Professor Akram Al-Hourani, who is Deputy Director of COMAS.

The device contains a metal compound known as molybdenum disulfide, or MoS2.

In their latest study, the team showed how atomic-scale defects in this compound can be harnessed to capture light and process it as electrical signals, like how neurons work in our brain.

“This proof-of-concept device mimics the human eye’s ability to capture light and the brain’s ability to process that visual information, enabling it to sense a change in the environment instantly and make memories without the need for using huge amounts of data and energy,” Walia said.

“Current digital systems, by contrast, are very power hungry and unable to keep up as data volume and complexity increases, which limits their ability to make ‘true’ real-time decisions.”

The research is published in Advanced Materials Technologies. Walia and Al-Hourani are corresponding authors and Mr Thiha Aung, a PhD scholar at RMIT, is first author.

RMIT has filed a provisional patent for the work.

Seeing the future in the wave of a hand

During experiments, the device detected changes in a waving hand’s movement, without the need to capture the events frame by frame – this is known as edge detection, which requires significantly less data processing and power.  

Once the changes were detected, the device stored these events as memories like a brain.

The researchers conducted experiments in the spectrum visible to the human eye, which built upon the team’s previous neuromorphic research in the ultraviolet domain.

“We demonstrated that atomically thin molybdenum disulfide can accurately replicate the leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neuron behaviour, a fundamental building block of spiking neural networks,” Thiha said.

The past UV work only involved the detection, memory making and processing of still images. In both the visible-spectrum and UV devices, memories could be reset so that devices were ready to perform the next task.

Potential applications

The team’s innovation could one day improve response times of automated vehicles and advanced robotic systems to visual information, which could be crucial particularly in dangerous and unpredictable environments.

“Neuromorphic vision in these applications, which is still many years away, could detect changes in a scene almost instantly, without the need to process lots of data, enabling a much faster response that could save lives,” Walia said.

“For robots working closely with humans in manufacturing or as a personal assistant, neuromorphic technology could enable more natural interactions by recognising and reacting to human behaviour with minimal delay,” Al-Hourani said.

Next steps

The team is now scaling up the proof-of-concept single-pixel device to a larger pixel array of MoS2-based devices.

The Australian Research Council has recently funded the team with a Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant to enable this scaling up of their neuromorphic devices.

“While our system mimics certain aspects of the brain’s neural processing, particularly in vision, it's still a simplified model,” Walia said.

“We will optimise the devices to perform specific real-world applications with more complex vision tasks, and further reduce power consumption.”

The team plans to develop hybrid systems that integrate their analogue technology with conventional digital electronics.

“We see our work as complementary to traditional computing, rather than a replacement,” Walia said.

“Conventional systems excel at many tasks, while our neuromorphic technology offers advantages for visual processing where energy efficiency and real-time operation are critical.”

The team is also investigating materials other than MoS2 that might extend capabilities into infrared, which could enable real-time tracking of global emissions and intelligent sensing of contaminants such as toxic gases, pathogens and chemicals.

‘Photoactive monolayer MoS2 for spiking neural networks enabled machine vision applications’ is published in Advanced Materials Technologies (DOI: 10.1002/admt.202401677).

MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE

Photos of the team and the neuromorphic vision device are available for download here: https://spaces.hightail.com/space/r7657uHgZL

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Journal

Advanced Materials Technologies

DOI

10.1002/admt.202401677 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Photoactive monolayer MoS2 for spiking neural networks enabled machine vision applications