Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed a biomaterial-based vaccine technology that could provide prophylactic protection against bacterial infection and septic shock. The technology is delivered as a biomaterial scaffold. Once inside the body, it captures bacterial pathogens and then recruits and activates dendritic cells to initi (Read more...)
Tag: Materials
Sweating E-Skin for Long-Term Health Monitoring
Researchers at MIT have developed an e-skin technology that contains artificial sweat ducts. The ducts prevent sweat accumulation underneath the e-skin, helping to prevent interference with built-in sensors. Incorporating a kirigami-style design, the material conforms to human skin but maintains a high porosity and reduced sweat accumulation. The d (Read more...)
Battery-Free Wireless Pacemaker Dissolves Post Treatment
Researchers at Northwestern University and collaborators have developed a temporary cardiac pacemaker that dissolves away in the body into harmless byproducts. The technology avoids the need for leads penetrating the skin as well as follow-up procedures to remove a pacemaker. The device could make temporary pacemaker placement a safer and more conv (Read more...)
Cell Cloaking to Reduce Foreign Body Response to Medical Implants
Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology have developed a technique to coat implantable materials, such as stents, with extracellular matrix components and cells. The new approach could lead to implantable devices that suffer fewer adverse events, such as fibrosis, inflammation, and clotting, because of the foreign body response (Read more...)
Inflatable Neurostimulator for Minimally Invasive Pain Control
Researchers at the University of Cambridge created a spinal stimulation device that can help to control severe pain. Unlike existing technologies, which require invasive surgery for implantation, the new device can be delivered using a needle. Once implanted, the device unfurls and inflates in place to provide extensive coverage during spinal cord (Read more...)
Spray-On Hydrogel to Prevent Post-Surgery Adhesions
Researchers at University of California San Diego have developed a spray-on hydrogel that forms a protective coating on tissue surfaces, such as the surface of the heart. The new material is intended to prevent the formation of adhesions, where tissues inside the body adhere together abnormally following a surgical procedure. The crosslinked gel pe (Read more...)
Artificial Skin Bruises Like The Real Thing
Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed an artificial skin that can effectively indicate if damage has occurred, in the same way that our skin bruises naturally. The new skin is made using an ionic hydrogel, and demonstrates changes in electrical signaling when it is deformed. It also produces a purple color […]
Graphene Sensor for Rapid COVID-19 Detection
Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago have developed a graphene-based sensor that can rapidly detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The system includes graphene sheets that are coupled with an antibody against the viral spike protein. When viral particles bind to the antibodies, they change the vibrational properties of the graphene sheets, and (Read more...)
Highly Maneuverable Magnetically Controlled Miniature Robots
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore have developed miniature robots that are highly maneuverable, and can rapidly move in six degrees of freedom. These tiny devices are magnetic and can be controlled using an electromagnetic coil system that precisely manipulates the direction and strength of magnetic fields. The researchers (Read more...)
Kirigami Stent for Localized Drug Delivery
Researchers at MIT have developed a kirigami-style stent that can provide localized drug delivery through needle-like projections that pop out when the stent is extended. The ‘spines’ on the stent’s surface deliver drug-loaded microparticles into the surrounding tissue, allowing for sustained drug release for an extended period. T (Read more...)
High-throughput 3D Bioprinting for Drug Development
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a high-throughput technique for 3D bioprinting. Using the new technology, the researchers can very quickly print large numbers of custom tissue samples that are suitable for drug screenings. Their printing method can yield a 96-well plate with tissue samples in each well in as lit (Read more...)
Battery-Free Smart Fabrics to Monitor Health
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technique to create smart garments that can harvest electrical power from nearby Wi-Fi networks and radio waves in a process known as magnetic resonance coupling. This power can then be used to energize on-board electrical systems, including body monitors. The fabrics are water repellent, breathable (Read more...)
Reverse 3D Printing to Make Tiny Medical Implants
Researchers at RMIT University in Australia have developed a new 3D printing technique that allows them to create incredibly small and complex biomedical implants. The approach involves printing glue molds that can then be filled with biomaterial filler. Once the mold is dissolved away, the biomaterial structure remains. Excitingly, the technique u (Read more...)
Cardiac Organoids Self-Organize to Mimic Human Heart
Researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences have developed the most realistic cardiac organoids to date. The tiny structures self-organize from pluripotent stem cells to form a hollow chamber that can beat. The method to create the ‘cardioids’ involves stimulating a variety of signaling pathways in stem cells and does not rely on co (Read more...)
Magnetic Cilia to Propel Soft Biomedical Robots
Researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands have developed artificial cilia that can beat just like the real thing. The tiny projections typically adorn the outside of certain cells in nature, and this artificial version could help to propel tiny biomedical robots or power microfluidic pumps. The artificial cilia rely o (Read more...)
Engineered Surfaces Reduce Bacterial Attachment and Growth
Researchers at Monash University in Australia have developed a technique to create 3D engineered surfaces that reduce bacterial growth. Their approach could lead to frequently touched surfaces in healthcare facilities that result in less bacterial transmission. This should lead to a reduction in the incidence of hospital acquired infections, such a (Read more...)
Electrospun Nanofibers Filter 99.9% of Coronavirus Aerosols
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have developed a nanofiber filter that is highly effective at removing coronavirus aerosols from air. As a major source of COVID-19 transmission, aerosols pose an ongoing threat. Technologies to remove aerosols from the air in buildings or as part of personal protective equipment are being deve (Read more...)
Gene-Silencing Nanoparticles to Treat COVID-19
Researchers at City of Hope, a research center based in California, and Griffith University in Australia have collaborated to create a new experimental anti-viral therapy that can treat COVID-19. The therapeutic consists of small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules encapsulated within lipid nanoparticles. When delivered into the bloodstream, the nano (Read more...)
Trojan Horse Virus Makes Tumors Destroy Themselves
Researchers at the University of Zurich have developed a virus-based therapy that causes a tumor to destroy itself. They modified an adenovirus, which is a common virus that typically infects the respiratory tract and which is already widely used in medicine, to deliver genetic material that codes for an anti-cancer protein. In a sneaky move, [&hel (Read more...)
Tiny Implantable Ultrasound Chip for Physiological Monitoring
Researchers at Columbia University have developed a microscopic implantable chip for physiological monitoring. It has a total volume of less than 0.1 mm3. To put that in perspective, the chip is as small as a dust mite, and can only be viewed using a microscope. The goal of this research was to create devices that […]