External defibrillators that shock hearts out of life threatening arrhythmias are pretty brutal devices. They have to deliver a great deal of electrical energy into the skin so that enough of it reaches the heart, sometimes even to the point of burning the person being treated. The skin is a major barrier to the flow […]
Tag: Materials
Anti-Microbial Nanotechnology: Interview with Adrian Fellows, Head of R&D at AGA Nanotech
AGA Nanotech, a medtech company based in the UK, has developed nanotechnologies aimed at overcoming antimicrobial resistance, with a view to offering an alternative to conventional antibiotics. The company has collaborated with researchers from University College London to create poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles that can deliver h (Read more...)
Injectable Bandage Stops Bleeding Wounds from Inside
At Texas A&M University researchers have developed a therapeutic hydrogel for injecting into bleeding wounds that can significantly speed up the hemostasis. The new injectable hydrogel material consists of nanosilicates, which are nanoparticles made from common minerals, and a thickening agent used in food preparation called kappa carrageenan. (Read more...)
Disease-Responsive Hydrogel Can Release Drug During Arthritis Flares
Researchers at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a disease-responsive hydrogel for anti-inflammatory drug delivery. The hydrogel could be injected into joints in patients with inflammatory arthritis for long-term local treatment. The gel breaks down in response to enzymes that are increased in an inflamed join (Read more...)
First FDA Clearance for Software to 3D Print Patient Specific Anatomical Models
Materialise, a company specializing in 3D printing based in Belgium but with offices around the world, won FDA clearance for its Mimics inPrint software to be used for 3D printing of anatomical models for diagnostic applications. The software allows hospitals to print one-to-one reproductions of individual patient anatomy, thereby helping surgeons (Read more...)
Kirigami-Inspired Material Can Adhere to Flexible Surfaces for Improved Bandages and Wearables
Researchers at MIT have developed a thin, light-weight film that can securely adhere to flexible and deformable parts of the body, such as the knee and elbow. The key to the sticking-power of the material lies in a series of slits the researchers have cut into it, inspired by the Asian art of kirigami, which […]
Profusa’s Tiny Implantable Sensors Keep Working in Patients Even After Four Years
Tiny, flexible, and biocompatible implantable sensors that are smaller than a grain of rice have been successfully worn for over four years now by human subjects, as was reported by Profusa, a South San Francisco firm, at the just concluded American Chemical Society’s 254th National Meeting. The wireless and battery-free implants are des (Read more...)
Bacteria Coerced to 3D Print Nanocellulose Implants
In a quest to make more realistic, safer, and personalizable tissue replacement implants, bacterial cellulose nanofibers are being looked on as a viable material. They are naturally biocompatible, biodegradable, withstand heat well, and have physical properties similar to many of our tissues, when composed into larger objects. Bacterial cellulose n (Read more...)
Bacteria Coerced to 3D Print Nanocellulose Implants
In a quest to make more realistic, safer, and personalizable tissue replacement implants, bacterial cellulose nanofibers are being looked on as a viable material. They are naturally biocompatible, biodegradable, withstand heat well, and have physical properties similar to many of our tissues, when composed into larger objects. Bacterial cellulose n (Read more...)
Tooth Sensor Measures Intake of Sugar, Salt, Alcohol
Having an accurate record of food and alcohol intake is important for managing a number of diseases including diabetes, various cardiovascular conditions, and alcoholism. Currently, not much practical technology is available to do this aside from smartphone apps, and apps tend to be tedious and require constant vigilance of making sure to input all (Read more...)
Nanofiber Dressings Speed Up Healing of Serious Wounds
Researchers at Harvard University have come up with two new wound dressings that promote healing without relying on growth factors, cells, or even artificial scaffolds. Instead, natural proteins that are found in soy and human fetus cells are made to speed up the body’s natural healing processes, including performing tricks that only fetal ti (Read more...)
Artificial Organelles Allow Manipulation of Chemical Processes Inside Cells
At the University of Basel in Switzerland, researchers have come up with a way of implanting artificial organelles into individual cells of zebrafish embryos. Introducing artificial organelles into cells can allow for manipulation of inter-cellular activities that are otherwise very difficult to influence. Artificial organelles can be made to carry (Read more...)
Cardiomyocyte Molds to Improve Cardiac Cell Therapy
Researchers at Michigan Tech and Harvard Medical School have developed a new way to create cardiomyocytes from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), for improved cardiac cell therapy. The team developed a culture mold that mimics the physiological conditions under which cardiomyocytes grow. When the team tested the molds, they found that the cell (Read more...)
Scientists Develop Technique to Mass Produce Drug Delivery Nanovesicles
Numerous technologies that use and help nanovesicles to deliver drugs to disease sites have been developed over the past few years, as any regular reader of Medgadget can attest to. We’re now at a stage when figuring out how to manufacture so-called extracellular nanovesicles (ENV) in millions, properly targeted, and on demand is a major [&he (Read more...)
Interview with Devyn Smith PhD, COO of Sigilon Therapeutics
Sigilon Therapeutics is a Cambridge, MA-based biotech company developing innovative therapeutics by encapsulating cells in a novel coating that renders them invisible to the immune system. The engineered cells contained in the company’s particles can provide long-term continuous therapy for a range of chronic disorders, including hemophilia a (Read more...)
Peptide Hydrogel Promotes Tissue Growth to Heal Without Drugs
Rice University researchers studying how different drugs, proteins, and cells embedded in peptide hydrogel can boost healing and promote tissue formation, discovered that the hydrogel itself exhibits powerful therapeutic properties. Their self-assembling multidomain peptide (MDP) with the amino acid sequence K2(SL)6K2 can be injected into tiss (Read more...)
Flexible Sensor Could Replace Frequent Blood Tests with Continuous Sweat Monitoring
Researchers at the University of Glasgow, UK have created a wearable sensor that is capable of measuring sweat pH, which could help patients with chronic conditions avoid the need for finger-prick blood tests. The flexible sensor, which measures around 10×10 mm can stretch with natural movements and elongate by up to 53% without compromising (Read more...)
Artificial Photoreceptors Return Vision to Blind Mice
Blindness in many people is caused by diseased rod and cone cells within the retina that are responsible for turning light into electric signals. If these photoreceptor cells don’t function correctly, even an otherwise perfectly healthy eye won’t produce quality vision. There are technologies out there that bypass photoreceptors entirel (Read more...)
Soft Electronics for Long Term Neural Monitoring and Recording
Scientists at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, Linköping University in Sweden, and Columbia and NYU in New York City, have developed a highly flexible soft electronic neural interface probe that can be stretched to twice its original length. The device is suitable for long-term neural recording, and could help clinicians to diagnose and monitor neur (Read more...)
3D Printed Patches with Living Cells Help to Overcome Tiny Blocked Vessels
Thrombotic blockages within blood vessels are a common health problem. When occlusions occur in large vessels, they can be relatively easy to deal with using wires, catheters, balloons, and stents. It is the smaller vasculature, which can be too narrow for intravascular instruments, that is currently nearly impossible to deal with. Researchers at t (Read more...)