Researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed a device that can harvest energy from the human knee during walking, without a substantial increase in effort for wearers. Their work demonstrates that the device generates up to 1.6 mW of power without significant change in breathing patterns or oxygen consumption by the wearer. [ (Read more...)
Tag: Materials
Low Power Network for Wireless Body Sensors
As wearable devices multiply and gather ever more data about our bodies, the batteries and wireless networks they rely on can become strained. To give wearables a longer battery life and to allow gigabytes of data to be transmitted at the same time, researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a new type […]
Thin Microgels Encapsulate and Protect Therapeutic Cells
Cell-based therapies, such as those involving the delivery of stem cells, require a way to encapsulate cells inside a protective package in order for them to not be destroyed and washed out by the body. There have been successful attempts to contain therapeutic cells within hydrogels, but the resulting materials were bulky and could not […]
Super Sensitive Electronic Skin for Prosthetic Devices
Artificial skin with the ability to feel is a major research goal for engineers working on improving prosthetic technology. Researchers in the past have created materials with sensors spread over a few square inches, but these have typically had a number of limitations. One thing that causes many such electronic skins to be impractical is [… (Read more...)
Pancreas on a Chip to Study Causes and Treatments of Diabetes
Dysfunction of the pancreas is related to a number of diseases, most famously diabetes. Conditions such as cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD), are particularly difficult to study in a laboratory setting, but researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have now developed a device, and an accompanying methodology, to mimic (Read more...)
Artificial Muscle Fibers for Biomedical Applications
Scientists at MIT have taken inspiration from cucumber tendrils, the helical offshoots that grab onto fences and anything else they can, to create artificial muscle-like fibers. The new fibers can quickly contract and expand, and can lift objects many times their weight. The hope is that these may one day find their way into medical […]
New Device to Improve Surgical Illumination
Researchers from Texas A&M University have developed a new wireless device that allows for direct illumination during surgeries. This is an exciting development that can improve surgical illumination, make many existing procedures easier to perform, and potentially reduce complication rates. Regardless of how skilled a physician is, there are s (Read more...)
Scientists Develop New Probe to Light Up Cancer
A team of researchers in Ireland has collaborated on developing a new fluorescent molecular probe that can hone in on and light up cancer in an exciting new way. The technology will hopefully have important consequences for cancer resection surgeries, allowing physicians to remove tumors while sparing healthy tissues. Previously developed fluoresce (Read more...)
Blood Flow Measurement Using Tiny LED Catheter
Measuring blood flow is important during a variety of surgical procedures, as well as in intensive care settings. Typically, this is performed intermittently, so there’s not a lot of temporal detail in the readings. Now, a team of researchers at Flinders University in Australia has developed a proof-of-concept prototype vascular catheter that (Read more...)
Printing Skin, Bones for Surgeries on Way to Mars
Traveling to Mars, our closest planet and which may one day serve as another base for humanity, is very far away. Any practical mission there and back will take years. The health of the astronauts undertaking such a journey will be paramount, so researchers are working on ways to be able to create customized tissues […]
Jellyfish Robot to Deliver Drugs Inside Body
At the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, a team of scientists has created a tiny robot that mimics the jellyfish. Its physical appearance and movements could certainly be mistaken for a real life jellyfish, as it elegantly plops up and down within a liquid medium. “The idea behind this project was twofold,” said Dr. [&hellip (Read more...)
Tiny Nanowire Probes Measure Intracellular Electrical Activity
Researchers at the University of Surrey and Harvard University have developed tiny nanoprobes that can measure electrical signals inside cells, such as neurons and cardiac cells. Unlike previous technology for intracellular electrophysiology, the nanoprobes cause minimal destruction to the cells, and could pave the way for human-machine interfaces (Read more...)
Superhydrophic “Nanoflowers” for Biomedical Applications
Researchers from Texas A&M University have developed new nanomaterial with superhydrophobic properties. Their recent publication demonstrates that by controlling atomic-scale defects in their nanomaterial, they could use it to repel water and blood on glass, paper, and other common materials. This exciting development can lead to self-cleaning (Read more...)
Crystallized Drugs to Protect Implants from Immune Attack
Implantable medical devices that intimately interact with the human body are often subject to the immune system’s foreign body response (FBR). This creates scarring around the implants, reducing their functionality over time. Now, scientists at MIT have developed a way to embed crystallized immunosuppressant drugs into implantable devices so (Read more...)
Microfluidic Chip Allows Embryonic Stem Cells to Differentiate
Complex multicellular organisms, such as ourselves, start out from stem cells that differentiate into different kinds of cells. This process is controlled by groups of cells that secrete special signaling molecules called morphogens, which guide nearby stem cells to turn into the kinds of cells that should be located in that region. This is an [&he (Read more...)
Floating Flexible Sensor to Monitor Engineered Tissues and Cell Cultures
Tissue engineering is a vibrant research field poised to revolutionize how we heal organs and tissues following damage from injury and disease. One of the difficulties that scientists working with cultured cells discover is the inability to closely monitor a number of characteristics of their cellular cultures. One reason is that water and electron (Read more...)
Radiation-Free Guidance for Vascular Catheters Using Smart Fiber Optics
While modern catheters can reach into various parts of the body, navigating there remains a major challenge. Fluoroscopes that emit X-rays are used to constantly keep track of the catheter location, but they emit ionizing radiation and require a great deal of protection to be used by clinicians. Engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital [&h (Read more...)
Low Cost Medical Devices for Low-Resource Regions: Interview with Prof. Saad Bhamla, Georgia Tech
Advances in medical technology continue apace, with sophisticated new medical devices and therapies becoming available on an ongoing basis. However, medical technology often comes at a premium, and for low-resource regions sometimes even relatively basic medical devices, such as hearing aids, are inaccessible because they are too expensive. Similar (Read more...)
Protein-Loaded Antimicrobial Hydrogel to Treat, Prevent Bone Infections
Bone infections are quite common following orthopedic surgery or as a result of injury or disease. They can be incredibly difficult to treat, and heavy duty antibiotic regimens coupled with debridement surgery is the current approach. Even after all that, inflammation is a frequent side effect. Now, researchers at Georgia Tech have created a hydrog (Read more...)
Nano-emulsions for Drug Delivery Through Skin
Researchers from MIT have developed a new chemical nanoemulsion that can help deliver drugs through the skin. Their work demonstrates that, only by using a handful of FDA-approved materials, they can create nano-sized emulsions which turn to gels when they come in contact with the body. These nano-emulsions may have interesting properties for drug (Read more...)