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 […]
Tag: Materials
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...)
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...)
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...)
New Fluorescent Tags Developed to Track Cause of Alzheimer’s
Amyloid protein plaques, particularly ones made of beta-amyloid 42, are a prime suspect in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Soluble oligomers, in this case molecules with a few repeating peptide units, may turn out to be the main culprit. They’re known to be toxic to neurons and some recent studies have led researchers to focus [ (Read more...)
Implantable Nanolasers for Tissue Imaging, Neurotherapy
A variety of imaging techniques and technologies, such as optogenetics, could benefit from devices that can emit visible laser light from inside tissues. Conventional lasers are too large, while nanolasers tend to be inefficient, heating up too much, and typically require damaging ultraviolet light to power them. Now, researchers at Northwestern an (Read more...)
Self-Sterilizing Polymer to Reduce Healthcare-Acquired Infections
Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new nanostructured polymer that can kill many different strains of bacteria and viruses within minutes. Their work demonstrates that the unique chemical modifications on the polymer allow it to kill bacteria like E. coli, along with the “superbug” methicillin-resistant St (Read more...)
Hydrogel Mimics of Heart Tissue to Study Cardiac Reshaping Following Aortic Valve Implantation
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures have become a popular way of treating aortic valve stenosis, a condition in which the valve stiffens and worsens cardiac function. Following implantation of a prosthetic valve, the hearts of patients tend to undergo significant reconstruction around the treatment site, but the mechanics of th (Read more...)
Bacterial Swarmbots to Produce Biologic Drugs
Biologics, being a group of drugs synthesized from biological sources, are often produced using bacteria. The manufacturing processes are usually slow and laborious, though they do benefit from economies of scale. Producing small quantities of biologics is typically limited to research labs, and even there it is limited in scope. Researchers at Duk (Read more...)
Material to Repair Cardiac Tissue Damaged by Heart Attacks Passes First Clinical Trial
Ventrix, a spin-off company of the University of California San Diego, has developed a special hydrogel that can be injected into the heart to provide a platform for cardiac repair following a heart attack. The technology was just tested in humans for the first time as part of an FDA-approved Phase 1 clinical trial. Though […]
Plasmapp Making Cool Gas Plasma Sterilization Available to Small Clinics
Many of today’s smaller surgical clinics have to sterilize equipment in-house, and autoclave sensitive instruments are processed using ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic, explosive, and irritating gas. Gas plasma is another low temperature option, but it requires large and expensive equipment that doesn’t make sense for small practices. A n (Read more...)
Light Powered Robot Made from Hydrogel to Operate Inside Body
Engineers at University of California, Los Angeles have come up with a tiny new robot that can be controlled and powered using a beam of light. Called OsciBot, because of its oscillating motion, the robot is made entirely out of a light-responsive hydrogel and doesn’t carry its own power source, relying on an external constant […]
Flexible Vitals Sensors Made from Graphene Sensitized with Quantum Dots
At the ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences, in Catalonia, Spain, researchers have come up with a way to use graphene to make flexible photodetectors to measure heart rate, blood oxygen concentration, and breathing rate. Additionally, the technology can also be used to measure UV levels coming from the Sun and to communicate the [&hellip (Read more...)
Multicolor Activated Fluorescent Dyes Thanks to Single Atom Replacement
Fluorescent dyes have transformed biomedical science. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2008, for example, was given for the discovery and development of green fluorescent protein, GFP. Ever since GFP became available, scientists have been working on improving fluorescent dyes to better study dynamic processes within biological tissues. Typically, u (Read more...)
New Way of Making Superhydrophobic Microchannels for Medical Devices
At Purdue University, engineers have created a practical way of giving tubes, microchannels, and other hollow components superhydrophobic properties. The technique will improve existing medical devices and make new ones, particularly originating from the field of microfluidics, possible. Currently, there are a number of techniques to make a surface (Read more...)
Magnetically Controlled Microbots for Drug Delivery and Hyperthermia Therapy in Cancer
Researchers in Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have developed biodegradable microrobots that can be magnetically controlled to deliver drugs and provide hyperthermia treatment at the site of a tumor. This latest research effort attempts to provide a delivery option for two different therapy pypes by creating biode (Read more...)
Sacrificial Ink Writing Technique for 3D Printed Organs
Researchers at Harvard have developed a way to 3D print vascular channels in large matrices composed of stem cell-derived organ building blocks. The technique could pave the way for 3D-printed organs. Creating human organs using 3D printing would help to address the current shortfall in available transplants. However, to date, this has proved to be (Read more...)
Multi-Sensing Glove Makes Prosthetic Hands More Real
Engineers from Purdue University, University of Georgia, and University of Texas have combined forces to develop a glove that can be put over existing prosthetic hands to give them a more life-like feel and the ability to sense a variety of parameters. The glove is intended to improve a user’s ability to interact with others. […]
Nanoscale Light Manipulation for Detection of Tiny Pathogens
Viruses are so small that to be able to detect them using light you need instruments that work on the nanoscale. Sensors so perfect are very hard to make, as most manufacturing processes disrupt nanoscale structures. Now, a team at Purdue University has developed a way to combine 3D plasmonic nanoarrays, special light manipulation devices, [&hellip (Read more...)
Nanodiamonds Cross Blood-Brain Barrier to Image Inside, Deliver Drugs
The blood-brain barrier is nearly impenetrable to most drugs and contrast agents, making it difficult to diagnose and treat diseases afflicting the brain. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have now developed a way of using nanodiamonds coated with a biopolymer to penetrate through the blood-brain barrier and deliver thera (Read more...)