Microfluidic devices are a major topic of research lately, partly because they have the potential to scale down existing devices and to make new diagnostic tools possible. Typically, microfluidic systems consist of scaled-down versions of conventional tubes, pumps, and valves. While effective for many applications, conventional components often get (Read more...)
Tag: Materials
Flow Diverter with Hemodynamic Sensor to Monitor Aneurysm Treatment
Flow diverters are implants that are commonly used to prevent blood from flowing into aneurysms. They look very similar to stents, and are often combined into one device, but instead of providing structural strength, they provide a way for blood to pass from one part of a vessel to another without flowing into a bulging […]
Nano-Optic Endoscope Allows High-Resolution Imaging
Researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a new type of endoscopic imaging catheter. The catheter uses metalenses, which contain nanostructures to focus light, to achieve higher resolution imaging than conventional catheter imaging systems. So far, the researchers have used the new system to image deep into (Read more...)
3D-Printed Ceramic Implants Help Regrow Bone
Researchers at NYU have developed 3D-printed ceramic implants that dissolves slowly, allowing bone to grow in their place. The implants can be tailored to mimic the shape of the missing bone, and are chemically-coated to stimulate bone growth. The research team hopes that the technology will be useful for patients with non-healing bone defects. At (Read more...)
Functional Nanofibers Loaded with Antibiotics to Treat Serious Wounds
Researchers at Texas A&M University and Stevens Institute of Technology have been working on developing new materials that could aid clinicians in treating challenging wounds. These polymeric coatings have nano-scale fibers that hold antibiotics and release their cargo when the environment of the wound meets a specific criteria. This makes the (Read more...)
Smallest Robots Ever Developed to Sense Their Environment
The reality of being able to inject microscopic robots into the bloodstream that are capable of performing meaningful clinical tasks is now a little bit closer. Researchers are MIT have unveiled the smallest robots to have ever been built capable of sensing their environment. These tiny constructs have not only sensors, but key computing components (Read more...)
Artificial Model of Heart Ventricle for Studying Cardiac Diseases, Drugs, Therapies
Custom-built artificial hearts are still something from science fiction, but the engineering knowledge to get there is already being assembled in labs around the world. One important piece of the puzzle has just been reported on by researchers at Harvard University, who have built a model of the heart’s left ventricle, seeded with living hear (Read more...)
Physical Binding Improves Tumor Targeting Nanoparticles
Various research teams around the world have developed tumor killing particles that consist of drug ferrying vessels and antibodies. The vessels protect the drug cargo within, while the antibodies serve as homing mechanisms to deliver the medication precisely where it’s needed. While many of these approaches have demonstrated some effectivene (Read more...)
Wearable Patch Can Sense Cortisol Levels in Sweat
Researchers at Stanford University have developed a stretchy wearable patch that can measure cortisol levels in sweat. The researchers hope that the technology could help doctors diagnose adrenal or pituitary problems, and help to assess stress levels in young or non-verbal children who cannot communicate with mental health professionals. Levels of (Read more...)
Microscopic, Remotely Powered Implant to Read, Transmit Brainwaves from Inside Skull
Brain-computer interfaces and other technologies that rely on reading and stimulating the brain require electrodes to obtain and deliver signals, as well as a way to transmit those signals from within the brain. Electric wires have usually served as the method of connectivity, but they create serious challenges, including potential for infection, s (Read more...)
Bioengineered Bone Grafts for Large Bone Defects
Researchers at the New York Stem Cell Foundation have developed a technique to produce bioengineered bone grafts for large bone defects, which are currently difficult to treat using conventional techniques. To deal with bone defects, clinicians currently use either synthetic materials or bone grafts from the patient or a donor. However, these graft (Read more...)
Method Tracks How Cancer Drugs Spread to Tumor Cells
When it comes to anti-cancer drugs, it’s not only their effectiveness at killing the intended target that we want to know, but also their ability to reach and penetrate the cancer cells. Knowing whether the drug actually enters cancer cells can be as important as whether it’s effective once inside. Now researchers at Francis Crick (Read more...)
Device Detects Mosquitoes Carrying Pathogenic Viruses
Mosquitoes are usually only an unpleasant nuisance, but when they’re carrying diseases we only find out once people start showing up sick at hospitals and clinics. A spinoff from Purdue University is hoping to give public health professionals, and mosquito eradication programs, an early warning system to know where to direct their resources. (Read more...)
Plasmonic Patch Improves Sensitivity of Fluorescent Diagnostic Testing
A great deal of life science research relies on using fluorescent markers to track molecular biological activity. It’s extremely effective as long as the light signal coming back from a sample is strong enough, but if the light is dim, as with highly sensitive, low concentration tests, fluorescent markers are often insufficient. Now researche (Read more...)
New Smart Bandage Monitors Health of Wounds, Dispenses Drugs as Needed
When wounds are bandaged, they’re only being assessed when the bandage is replaced every so often. This is starting to feel like something from the olden times, as so many things in our modern world are constantly monitored and evaluated. Engineers from Harvard, Tufts, MIT, and other institutions have now banded together to create a [… (Read more...)
Nano-Patterned Bone Implants Vascularize and Generate Bone Better Than Smooth Ones
A University of Toronto team from the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) discovered that nano-scale surface topology matters when it comes to vascularization of bone implants. They compared two titanium implants of the same chemical composition and varied only their surfaces at the nano scale. One was smooth and the other (Read more...)
Electronic Whiskers For Improved Prosthetic Touch
More than two million people are living with limb loss in the USA, and that number is expected to rise. For the majority of these individuals, prosthetic limbs are an invaluable tool to help regain some quality of life. One challenge that has been difficult to overcome in the design of prostheses, however, is enabling […]
Magnetically Activated Micromachines to Operate Remotely Inside Body
There are a lot of diseases and conditions within the body that may be treated if only mechanical devices would be small enough and powered for long enough to do their job. Engineers at MIT have created a class of magnetically activated bug-like microdevices that may foreshadow remote-controlled surgical tools and externally powered heart-assist pu (Read more...)
UCLA Researchers Develop Synthetic T Cells That Mimic Function of Human Version
Cancer research has made leaps and bounds in the past few decades, but the scourge of fast-dividing cancer cells still plagues people from all walks of life. Those with cancer, their families, and survivors hang onto the hope that one day a medical breakthrough will finally rid the world of the debilitating illness. That hope […]
Strained Guts: Engineering Human Intestinal Organoids for Transplantation
The increasing demand for organ transplantation has led many researchers to look for innovative ways to replace the need for human donors. Research in organoids, which are stem cell derived miniature mimics of organs typically grown in a dish, has significantly improved our understanding of organ development and structural organization. However, th (Read more...)