UCLA biomechanical engineers and ophthalmologists has uncovered new details about the muscle that controls blinking, offering a pathway toward developing blink-assisting prostheses. People can lose the ability to blink due to a stroke, tumor, infection or injury. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study found that the orbicularis oculi — the muscle that controls eyelid movement — contracts in complex patterns that vary by action and move the eyelid in more than just a simple up-and-down motion.

New computer simulations that model every atom of a protein as it folds into its final three-dimensional form support the existence of a recently identified type of protein misfolding.