Safe and powerful biofuel cells may help power future medical implantables, and researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and Korea University are helping to make that happen. The team of collaborators has developed a glucose-powered fuel cell that relies on gold-infused cotton fibers to achieve a new level of efficiency for such devices. (Read more...)
Tag: Materials
Personalized Oxygen Releasing Insoles for Diabetic Foot Ulcers
Diabetic foot ulcers are common maladies that are difficult to heal. In many cases, a total-contact cast is put on the leg with the ulcer to take the pressure off of the bottom of the foot, helping it to heal. While this is effective, supplying oxygen to the ulcer also helps it to heal. This […]
Personalized Oxygen Releasing Insoles for Diabetic Foot Ulcers
Diabetic foot ulcers are common maladies that are difficult to heal. In many cases, a total-contact cast is put on the leg with the ulcer to take the pressure off of the bottom of the foot, helping it to heal. While this is effective, supplying oxygen to the ulcer also helps it to heal. This […]
REVA’s Fantom Encore Thin Strut Bioresorbable Scaffold Unveiled
REVA Medical, out of San Diego, California, has released its Fantom Encore bioresorbable scaffold. The implant is made with the company’s own Tyrocore polymer that is absorbed by the body over a period of some months, eventually disappearing while native tissue takes over. The process helps to make sure that the lumen stays open whi (Read more...)
Nanoneedle Skin Patch to Inject Drugs Into Cells
Delivering drugs directly into skin cells using microscopic nanoneedles may allow for highly effective treatment of skin conditions without injuring the cells that are treated. Silicon nanoneedles have been developed in the past that can do such a trick, but they’re stiff and can be painful, in addition to quickly losing their effectiveness. (Read more...)
Glaucoma Drainage Device Uses Magnetic Fields for Self-Cleaning
Researchers at Purdue University have designed a prototype glaucoma drainage device that can clean itself under the influence of external magnetic waves. The innovation could lead to ocular drainage implants that last significantly longer than current models. The CDC has reported that approximately three million Americans are living with glaucoma. (Read more...)
Flexible LED Sensor Monitors Blood-Oxygenation Levels Through Skin
Researchers at University of California Berkeley have developed a flexible sensor that can be placed on the skin to measure levels of blood oxygenation over a large area. The device could help in tracking wound healing, or in monitoring oxygenation levels in transplanted skin or organs. “When you hear the word oximeter, the name for [… (Read more...)
Hairy Coating Keeps Nanoparticles Safe from Immune System, Liver
Nanoparticles are seemingly a great way to treat tumors, but they’re so rapidly washed out by the bloodstream that few of the nanoparticles actually reach their targets. Researchers at Drexel University have now developed a surface treatment that gives nanoparticles a significant advantage to overcome the body’s filtration system and th (Read more...)
Hairy Coating Keeps Nanoparticles Safe from Immune System, Liver
Nanoparticles are seemingly a great way to treat tumors, but they’re so rapidly washed out by the bloodstream that few of the nanoparticles actually reach their targets. Researchers at Drexel University have now developed a surface treatment that gives nanoparticles a significant advantage to overcome the body’s filtration system and th (Read more...)
Implantable, Light Activated Drug Releasing Microchamber Arrays
A research collaboration between scientists in Singapore, Russia, and the UK has developed a way of building tiny microchambers that can release drugs when activated by light. The microchambers are packaged together into implantable arrays that, when illuminated by near-infrared light, will open up and let whatever is inside flow out. They’re (Read more...)
Nanopropellers to Deliver Drugs Safely Into Eye
The eyes have a complex set of defensive barriers to protect internal structures. That is why getting drugs into the eye is still either not very effective, as with eye drops, or very invasive, as with a needle. Now a team of European scientists has developed a way of delivering microscopic capsules, soon to also be […]
(Read more...)Optically Pumped Magnetometer to Measure Electric Activity of Fetal Hearts
Assessing the electrical activity of a fetal heart is extremely difficult, since ECG is not an option. Ultrasound is not a substitute for electrical conduction study like ECG, so there’s always a search for a better alternative. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen believe that a new technology they’re working will give clinician (Read more...)
Kevlar with Conductive Nanowires Makes for Perfect Heat Pads
Electric heating pads are very popular for relieving minor aches and pains. They’re fairly cheap and are easy to use, but the heat distribution is uneven and the pads themselves tend to be lumpy or downright rigid. Wearing them while walking around is impractical, as they don’t wrap well around joints and tend to be […]
Nanoparticles and Microneedles for Painless Vaccinations
At Leiden University in The Netherlands, research is being done on making vaccinations easier and more effective. Currently, needles are commonly used and no one, particularly children, is happy about that. Microneedles patches have been developed in the past, but while they’re effective in some applications, they suffer from many limitations (Read more...)
Microfluidic Device to Study How Pancreatic Cancer Develops Clots
Using lab animals in medical science is not only an ethical issue, but the research findings often don’t match up to what happens in humans. Simulating various natural processes within microfluidic devices often a provides a more reliable, and easier to work with, laboratory technique over live animals. Researchers at Purdue University h (Read more...)
Electronic Synthetic Cells Small Enough for Injections
If injectable autonomous robots are to be used in medicine, they must be tiny and capable of being manufactured by the million. They must also have some kind of electronics inside for diagnostic or therapeutic capabilities. Researches at MIT have developed a method for producing so-called “syncells,” or synthetic cells, that can process (Read more...)
Microchip for Growing and Studying 3D Brain Mimics
Over the past few years, neuroscientists have been able to grow ever larger and more complex spheroid cultures and organoids that replicate the structure and functionality of brain tissue. While these models are significantly better at mimicking parts of the brain compared to 2D cultures, they are much more challenging to study because it’s h (Read more...)
MRI Implant to Detect Light and Electric Fields Inside Brain
Monitoring certain kinds of processes happening inside the brain can be pretty easy or exceedingly difficult. EEG, for example, provides a pretty good look into the brain using relatively simple technology, while measuring light emitted by luminescent proteins within the brain is incredibly challenging. Now researchers at MIT are adapting MRI techn (Read more...)
Nerve-on-a-Chip to Improve Functionality of Neuroprosthetic Devices
Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have created a special device to be able to stimulate and record signals from and to peripheral nerve fibers on a specialty chip. The device can be used to repeatedly stimulate and record the returning electric activity with high resolution, p (Read more...)
Paper-Based Smart Stickers for Implantable and Stick-On Diagnostics and Therapy
Flexible electronics make possible new wearable and implantable medical devices that conform to the body’s complex curvatures. While a great deal of progress has been made to make such technologies a reality, a lot of them are hard to manufacture, suffer from problems such as poor breathability, and don’t perform well inside the body. N (Read more...)