Researchers at Penn State have developed self-propelled liposomes that can migrate towards or away from chemical signals, paving the way for self-directed drug delivery vehicles that can actively target a specific area in the body. The technology may help to enhance efficacy and reduce side-effects of drugs in a variety of applications. Because of (Read more...)
Tag: Medicine
Flexible Wireless Oxygen Sensor for Monitoring Newborns at Home
Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have developed a prototype wireless, flexible oxygen sensor the size of a band aid. The device can be stuck to the skin and can wirelessly monitor blood oxygen levels and transmit data through the internet to doctors and caregivers. The technology may allow ill newborns to go home with their […]
(Read more...)AI Diagnoses Leukemia from Blood Samples as Well as Human Cytologists
A good deal of clinical diagnostics are effectively performed by cytologists who examine cells through a microscope for signs of disease. This is an imperfect, slow process that depends on the training, focus, and attention to detail of the cytologist. Now, researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University Hospital of LMU Munich in G (Read more...)
Electrospinning Drug Delivery Bandages Directly Onto Wounds
Electrospinning is a maturing manufacturing technology that is already being used in medicine to produce unusual materials with novel properties. It involves melting a polymer and extruding it through a narrow nozzle, while an electric field is used to pull and spin the polymer into a very fine mesh. When a biocompatible polymer is used, […]
(Read more...)Butterfly Network Expands Applications for Smartphone-Connected Ultrasound: Interview
Butterfly Network, the digital health unicorn democratizing medical imaging, is continuing to add new applications for its handheld, single probe, smartphone-connected ultrasound technology. The Butterfly iQ, the multi-purpose pocket-sized ultrasound, won FDA clearance a couple years ago and earlier this year received the CE Mark, clearing it for d (Read more...)
Chemo-Loaded Nanoparticles Piggyback on Red Blood Cells to Treat Lung Cancer
Scientists at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have developed a technique to deliver chemotherapy to the lungs using red blood cells. The method involves binding chemotherapy-loaded nanoparticles to red blood cells, which are then injected into the bloodstream. Once the red blood cells reach the lungs they have to squeeze through the small capillarie (Read more...)
MRI Maps to Track Effectiveness of Drug Releasing Implants
Drug-releasing implants may have significant benefits for treating a variety of diseases. They’re already used in a few limited applications, but wider implementation has proven to be challenging because it is difficult to know how a drug moves through the implant and into the surrounding tissues. Now, researchers at Purdue University have de (Read more...)
Injectable Electrodes for Neuromodulation
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed an injectable flexible electrode that can aid in neuromodulation therapy, potentially replacing more rigid electrodes that do not mesh well with soft tissues. The injectable material consists of a silicone gel and small metal particles, and it forms a flexible bolus when injected aro (Read more...)
Nanoparticles Cross Blood-Brain Barrier to Treat Stroke
Ischemic strokes can cause havoc in the brain, but early and properly directed treatment can mitigate a lot of damage. While there are a number of options to unclog blocked arteries, the potential to provide additional drug therapy remains mostly unexplored because of the difficulty in getting medications past the blood-brain barrier. Now, research (Read more...)
Philips’ New General Purpose Monitor with Early Warning Scoring to Prevent Adverse Events
Philips is releasing a new vital signs monitor designed to offer advanced warning on worsening patient status within general care clinical environments. The EarlyVue VS30 is a newly FDA cleared device featuring Philips’ Early Warning Scoring technology that spots tell-tale signs of degradation in patient health, and notifies clinicians someti (Read more...)
Device Detects Opioid Overdose, Arouses Patients Out of Respiratory Arrest
Med-botics, a firm based in Colorado Springs, won FDA Breakthrough Device status for its Oxalert EPO (Enhanced Pulse Oximeter), a device developed to prevent respiratory arrest from opioid overdoses. Post-op patients and others on heavy opioid therapy can stop breathing, which can lead to death if not monitored carefully. The Oxalert EPO monitors p (Read more...)
New Device to Test Drugs on Thousands of Individual Living Cells
Studying how individual cells are affected by chemical compounds, viral infections, and other agents can have profound practical consequences for the development of new drugs and novel therapies for disease. Conventionally, antivirals are studied in terms of how they influence entire cellular cultures, which can lead to researchers missing importan (Read more...)
Scientists 3D Print Vascularized Artificial Skin
Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to 3D print living skin with built-in blood vessels. This living skin construct is cultured in vitro and develops into an interconnected microvascular network underneath a layered barrier of skin cells. in tests on mice, the grafts connect with the animals’ vascular (Read more...)
Scientists 3D Print Vascularized Artificial Skin
Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to 3D print living skin with built-in blood vessels. This living skin construct is cultured in vitro and develops into an interconnected microvascular network underneath a layered barrier of skin cells. in tests on mice, the grafts connect with the animals’ vascular (Read more...)
Microscopic Donuts Swim On Their Own to Deliver Therapies Inside Body
While there has been a great deal of work on a variety of micro- and nanoparticles that can deliver drugs and other therapies within the body, compared with bacteria they’re extremely rudimentary in how they can move within the body. Most are simply carried along by the blood to whatever destinations they end up being […]
Tiny Traps Lure Cancer Cells for Diagnostics, Treatment Monitoring
Detecting cancer at its early stages remains a major challenge in oncology. Even monitoring the progression of cancer is difficult, but researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a tiny implantable device that can draw cancer cells toward itself for gene expression analysis. The microscopic device is a biomaterial scaffold that is (Read more...)
OnMed Deploys First Telemedicine Station at Tampa Bay General Hospital
Earlier this month, Tampa General Hospital (TGH) became the first deployment site for a new telemedicine station developed by health technology company OnMed. Available as part of the TGH staff health program, the OnMed Station connects patients with doctors, nurses, and pharmacists for real-time consultations via high definition audio and video. A (Read more...)
First Portable Carb Metabolism Monitor Unveiled
Kyocera of Japan has just unveiled the first carbohydrate metabolism measurement device. The system is portable and users can assess their carbohydrate metabolism just about anywhere. The soon to be released product is a radial arterial pulse wave gyro sensor that analyzes pulse-wave patterns at the wrist. Kyocera hopes that this new device will he (Read more...)
Controllable Microswimmers Move Around Individual Cells in 3D
Manipulating individual cells and microscopic particles may be extremely valuable for testing new therapies, targeting tumors, and for studying the underlying causes of disease, but it is very difficult to directly manipulate individual cells within an environment shared with other cells. A collaboration of researchers from University of California (Read more...)
Bruin Biometrics Is on a Mission to End Pressure Ulcers: Interview with CEO Martin Burns
Earlier this year, Medgadget reported on the FDA’s clearance of the SEM Scanner, a device created by Los Angeles-based Bruin Biometrics (BBI). The SEM Scanner is a wireless, handheld device that detects changes in sub-epidermal moisture as an indicator of risk for developing a pressure ulcer. Moisture can indicate the presence of localized ed (Read more...)