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Today, we tell about a woman who can use signals from her brain to move a robotic arm. We tell about efforts to develop an experimental gene treatment for patients with heart disease. And we explain how American computers are helping medical workers in Zimbabwe study the condition of their patients. A woman paralyzed from the neck down has learned to use her thoughts to control a specially-designed motorized arm. The arm is the product of years of research on mind-controlled artificial limbs. Researchers in the American state of Pennsylvania say the motorized arm is the most advanced mind-controlled prosthetic, or replacement limb ever made. They created the device to help return some muscle control to Jan Scheuermann. She is suffering from a degenerative neuromuscular disease that paralyzed her from the neck down. She has no control of her arms and legs. The motorized right arm has a five-fingered, fully-jointed hand. It enables Ms. Scheuermann to pick up and hold objects, and feed herself. Neurobiologist Andrew Schwartz led the University of Pittsburgh research team that developed the prosthetic arm. He says researchers placed about 200 electrodes in the woman’s left cerebral cortex. The left cerebral cortex is the part of the brain that people use to move their right arm. Dr. Schwartz says the electrodes recorded what the woman’s brain cells were doing when she thought about moving the arm. | 
