Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a series of oil-based gels that are intended to help those with difficulty swallowing to take drugs orally. Some adults and many children have difficulty taking pills, and so developing other forms of medication for oral drugs is important. The gels could be particularly usefu (Read more...)
Tag: Medicine
Wearable Uses Microneedles to Track Metabolism
A team of researchers at the University of California San Diego created a wearable device that uses a disposable microneedle patch to continuously sample and analyze interstitial fluid. The wearable can measure glucose, alcohol, and lactate levels, all of which could be useful information for patients with diabetes. The disposable patch is attached (Read more...)
Advanced Multi-Organ Chip for Personalized Medicine
Researchers at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science developed an advanced organ-on-a-chip system that incorporates heart, bone, liver, and skin tissue in independent niches that are linked with simulated vascular flows. The system even includes immune cells that circulate within the simulated vasculature. The technology rep (Read more...)
Wearable Sweat Sensor Warns of Impending Cytokine Storm
Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas, in collaboration with a company called EnLiSense, developed a wearable electrochemical sweat sensor that can detect chemokines in sweat, alerting the wearer and clinicians to a viral or bacterial infection. The device also warns of an impending cytokine storm, where high levels of inflammatory molec (Read more...)
Molecular Robots Swarm to Deliver Cargo
Researchers at Hokkaido University in Japan created molecular robots that can employ swarm behaviors to move and release small cargoes. The robots can be controlled using light, and they consist of biological components, including DNA, microtubules, which are a cytoskeletal component, and kinesin, which is a motor protein that interacts with microt (Read more...)
Wireless Data Transfer for Implanted Devices Using Ionic Communication
Researchers at the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a new method for implanted devices to communicate with the outside world that exploits the ions that are naturally present in our tissues. Ion-rich tissues store potential energy, and in this paradigm an implanted device would alter this stored energy wi (Read more...)
Multiplex Immunoassay for Dengue Diagnosis
Researchers at the University of Reading in the UK created a rapid multiplex immunoassay for the detection of Dengue fever. The technology, which the researchers call the Cygnus system, aims to provide improved sensitivity compared with lateral flow tests and improved convenience and speed compared with conventional lab tests. As a point-of-care de (Read more...)
Spray Blocks SARS-CoV-2 Entry into Nasal Cells
Researchers at the University of British Columbia, and collaborators, created a nasal spray that can block the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells in the nasal cavity, potentially offering protection and treatment for COVID-19. Excitingly, in lab tests, the spray appears to work against all known variants of the virus, including the Omicron variant, whi (Read more...)
Highly Efficient Liposome-Based Drug Screening
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have developed a technique that lets them screen the interactions of drug candidates with target molecules extremely rapidly, inexpensively, and with very small amounts of starting materials and reagents. The highly efficient method , which the researchers have called “single particle combinatorial (Read more...)
Multi-Purpose Sensor for Rapid, Accurate COVID-19 Testing
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University developed a COVID-19 testing technology that is based on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) coupled with machine learning. The technique does not require sample preparation or special training and can deliver results in as little as 25 minutes, with an accuracy that is comparable to that of PCR, the c (Read more...)
Spherical Nucleic Acid Vaccine Uses Structural Design to Improve Efficacy
A team at Northwestern University created a new type of nanoparticle-based vaccine that employs structure-function relationships during the design phase to maximize efficacy. Called a spherical nucleic acid (SNA) vaccine, the technology consists of globular DNA nanoparticles that contain a DNA sequence that can stimulate the immune system (ie. an a (Read more...)
Implantable Biomaterial for CAR-T Cell Creation and Release
Researchers at North Carolina State University developed an implantable biomaterial scaffold that enables the creation and release of CAR-T cells, which are immune cells that have been engineered and primed to seek and destroy cancer within the body. The technique could prove to be much less expensive than conventional CAR-T cell therapy, and it ma (Read more...)
Cryomesh System for Long Term Pancreatic Islet Storage
Researchers at the University of Minnesota developed a cryopreservation system that allows for long-term pancreatic islet cold storage. Islets can be implanted in patients with diabetes, and can even be curative in this context, but the technique has been hampered by a lack of techniques to store donor islets beyond 24-72 hours. This latest techniq (Read more...)
Genetically Engineered Bacteria Evade Immune System to Kill Cancer
Researchers at the Columbia University created a genetically modified bacterium that expresses a molecular cloak to help the bacterial cells to stay hidden from the immune system. They have shown the potential of this bacteria as an anti-cancer therapeutic by engineering the same bacteria to also express an anti-tumor toxin, allowing them to accumu (Read more...)
Lymphoid Follicle Chip Models Complex Immune Responses
Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have created a microfluidic chip that contains lymphoid follicle-like structures, allowing them to model complex immune responses to various pathogens and vaccines. The breakthrough could let scientists to more comprehensively probe the complex workings of the immune system. Lymphoid follicles are found in (Read more...)
Cell-Loaded Beads Release Cytokines to Eradicate Tumors
Researchers at Rice University have created a cytokine delivery system that can produce localized immunotherapy at a tumor site for 15-30 days. The technology consists of cytokine-producing ARPE-19 cells that the researchers have encapsulated in small polymer beads. The beads can be delivered into the body using minimally invasive techniques and th (Read more...)
Modified Red Blood Cells for COVID-19 Vaccination
Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada created engineered red blood cells to act as a new COVID-19 vaccine technology. The cell membranes have been studded with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and in experiments the researchers have conducted in mice the cells can trigger an immune response with minimal side-effects. The team reports t (Read more...)
Humanoid Robot Measures Blood Pressure with a Touch
Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada unveiled a humanoid robot that can measure blood pressure by touching a patient’s chest. The robot uses sensors on its fingertips to perform the measurements. Inspired by blood-sucking leeches, the dry electrode sensors infer blood pressure by combining electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysm (Read more...)
Blood Clotting Test on a Smartphone
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed smartphone-based technology that can allow someone to perform a blood clotting test at home. The technology is low-cost and easy to use. The test involves placing a drop of blood into a plastic attachment that can be viewed by a smartphone camera. The smartphone then vibrates the […]
(Read more...)Capsule Delivers and Injects mRNA into Stomach
Researchers at MIT have created an oral mRNA delivery system that could provide an alternative to injectable mRNA vaccines. It could also enable RNA or DNA therapies that are intended to treat gastrointestinal diseases. mRNA has shown its therapeutic potential in spectacular fashion, providing the powerhouse behind some of the world’s most su (Read more...)