Researchers from the City University of Hong Kong have developed a new, controllable cancer drug called phorbiplatin that only becomes active and potent after red light stimulation. Their work demonstrates that in the dark the cancer drug does not have substantial toxicity, but the drug is able to substantially reduce tumor size when activated by [ (Read more...)
Author: Medgadged
Complex Hydrogel Structures to Host Living Cells Printed Using New Technique
Hydrogels are one of the hottest materials in biomedical research these days, as anyone following this publication will attest to. They’re biocompatible, have the squishy consistency of soft tissues, and they can be tinkered with to host living cells, deliver drugs, and hopefully one day serve as replacements for diseased tissues and organs. (Read more...)
Exoskeleton Walks to Brain’s Commands
Powered exoskeletons are used to help people with lower limb paralysis get on their feet and allow post-stroke patients to recover faster. They’re pretty impressive devices, but people who are severely disabled, including those suffering from tetraplegia, can’t get much benefit from them. Now, a team of researchers in France has succeed (Read more...)
Free App Scans Everyday Photos of Kids for Signs of Disease
Leukocoria, also known as white puppilary reflex, is a symptom of a number of diseases, including retinoblastoma, Coats’ disease, and congenital cataracts. When light enters the eye at certain angles in people with leukocoria, a white reflection from the retina can be seen. While easy to spot with ophthalmic equipment, the condition, and the (Read more...)
Printing Custom Flexible Electronics Directly Onto Skin, Bandages, Medical Devices
Flexible electronics have the potential to help monitor, and even modulate, a number of physiological parameters. While stick-on heart monitors can be manufactured as one-size-fits-all, in applications such as electronic bandages that can monitor and treat a wound, it’s best to be able to create custom devices that suit each patient’s n (Read more...)
Laser Activated Gold Nanorods Create Silk Seal for Incisions and Wounds
Staples and sutures are currently used to seal soft tissues together in clinical practice, but researchers at Arizona State University have come up with an alternative technique that resembles welding. It may end up being used to seal tissues during surgeries and to treat wounds, and in many cases simply to enhance the effectiveness of […]
New Imaging Technique Reveals Deep Tumors, Helps Attack Them
Tumors deep inside the body can be very difficult to spot, track, and study. The brain, being surrounded by a thick skull, is particularly challenging to image using light, so MRI and CT are currently the go-to imaging modalities when looking at deeply seated tissues. Now, researchers at Stanford University are reporting the development of [&hellip (Read more...)
AI-Powered Motion Tracking Technology for Back Pain and COPD: Interview with Rutger Flohil, US CEO of Kaia Health
Kaia Health, a health technology company based in New York City, has developed a smartphone app that can guide users through exercises to help with back pain and COPD. The technology uses AI powered motion tracking technology to monitor users’ movements through a smartphone camera, and provides feedback on the exercises being performed. The a (Read more...)
Hyperspectral Surgical Microscope to See Cancer Cells in Real Time
Since internal cancerous tumors usually look exactly like the healthy tissues around them, frozen section analysis is used during and after surgeries to confirm that the entirety of a tumor has been removed. This is a slow process that often leads to patients requiring follow-up procedures. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have [&he (Read more...)
Medical Drones Deliver Defibrillators Faster than Ambulances
Aerial drones may soon be delivering packages to our homes faster than ground vehicles, as a new FAA certification for a UPS drone fleet has been granted. While it’s very exciting and getting your latest online order within hours of placement will do wonders to satisfy our materialist needs, emergency medicine is the area where […]
Disc Pump for Less Obtrusive Ambulatory Blood Pressure Systems
TTP Ventus, the UK-based developer of the Disc Pump, has recently begun working on a new application for this technology – ambulatory blood pressure systems. The company claims that the Disc Pump, which is a miniaturized, quiet, and highly efficient pump, could revolutionize ambulatory blood pressure measurements. At present, 24-hour blood pr (Read more...)
Hexoskin Shirt Proving Itself for Lung Function Measurement
A few years ago Hexoskin, a Canadian startup, announced the development of a sensor-packed t-shirt that can measure a number of physiological parameters in real-time. It’s novel because it doesn’t require the wearer to put on individual sensors and attach them to the skin, allowing common daily at-home and athletic activities to be perf (Read more...)
Nanoparticles Inside Samples of Mucus to Measure COPD Development
Management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suffers not only from a lack of effective therapies, but also from an inability to track the disease’s progression. Spirometers that measure how much air patients can displace using their lungs are the “gold standard,” but that standard is pretty poor in helping to predict (Read more...)
Nanoparticles for RNA Vaccine Delivery Help Stop Melanoma Tumor Growth
RNA vaccines are a promising way to harness the immune system to fight cancers and infections. Some are currently in clinical trials, but the technology is still in its early stages. A major impediment to the effectiveness of RNA vaccines is the difficulty in getting them into the correct immune cells to produce the desired […]
Using FibroScan in The Clinic: Interview with Dr. Stephen A. Harrison
EchoSens creates non-invasive liver diagnosis medical devices. The company’s line of products, called FibroScan, work by measuring the speed of ultrasound waves as they move through liver tissue. This measurement can tell us about the state of the liver. For example, ultrasound waves move faster through fibrotic/scarred livers. EchoSens recen (Read more...)
Loop-X Surgical Imaging Robot Unveiled
Brainlab, out of Germany, just unveiled its flagship Loop-X mobile intraoperative imaging robot specifically designed for spinal surgical procedures. Developed by medPhoton, an Austrian company, the device is now the core of Brainlab’s imaging offerings. The device offers 2D and 3D intraprocedural imaging, moving as necessary along with the s (Read more...)
Temporary Medical Tattoos of Anatomy, Injuries, Pathologies
Part of the difficulty in training the public in how to respond to medical emergencies is that many don’t understand the human anatomy below the skin. Moreover, knowing what different conditions actually look like on the body is another problem. Knowing where arteries run and where muscles connect to bone, as well as how bruises, […]
New Chip for Microwave Imaging of Body
Today’s clinicians are limited to a few imaging modalities, primarily X-ray, CT, MRI, and ultrasound. Microwaves, in principle, can also be used as a useful way to look inside the body. Microwave radiation is non-ionizing, so should be safer than X-rays, but in practice microwave imagers, because of the electronics inside, have remained bulky (Read more...)
Synchron Announces First Successful Clinical Implantation of Stentrode
Synchron, a spin-off from the University of Melbourne in Australia, has announced the first successful implantation of the Stentrode minimally invasive neural interface device in a person. The device is part of the Synchron brain-computer interface and combines the minimally invasive delivery of a vascular stent with the functionality of a neural i (Read more...)
Artificial Skin to Improve Sense of Touch, Help Study Neural Activity
At the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, researchers have created an interesting artificial “skin” that can sense touch while providing real-time haptic feedback in the form of vibrations. Because the sensors and actuators are completely embedded within this skin, it allows for near simultaneo (Read more...)