Materials
Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a biosensor that is based on protein nanowires that are created by bacteria. The protein nanowires are highly sensitive to ammonia, in this case, which is present in the breath of patients with kidney disease, but it is likely possible to create nanowires for a huge array of other health biomarkers. The researchers genetically modified E. Coli to create protein nanowires with increased ammonia sensitivity. The nanowires are layered onto an electrode array and then if ammonia binds to them, it...
Patient-Specific Soft Robotic Heart Replicas for Treatment Planning
March 1st, 2023 by Conn Hastings
Researchers at MIT have developed soft robotic heart replicas that closely match the anatomy of real people. The researchers used medical images of patient hearts to construct computer models that are suitable for 3D printing. Once printed with a soft material, the patient-specific heart models can be actuated using external inflatable sleeves, in the style of blood pressure cuffs, allowing the team to match the blood flow and pressure parameters parameters of the original heart. These models allow clinicians to accurately model cardiac anatomy, physiology, and mechanics for an individual...Read More
Neuroimmune Modulation for Inflammatory Disease: Interview with Dr. Simhambhatla, President and CEO of SetPoint Medical
February 28th, 2023 by Conn Hastings
SetPoint Medical, a medtech company based in California, is developing a neuromodulatory device that is intended to treat rheumatoid arthritis. The overlap between the nervous and immune systems is increasingly appreciated, and this technology aims to capitalize on this to create a new treatment for inflammatory disease. The neuromodulation device is intended to be implanted on the left cervical vagus nerve in an outpatient procedure. It stimulates the nerve with electrical pulses. The idea is that this can act to calm inflammatory processes that contribute to rheumatoid arthritis, without the...Read More
Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute are collaborating with a biotechnology company called Gameto to develop human ovarian organoids that will allow the study of reproductive and other health issues using tissues that closely mimic those in human patients. Another application may lie in allowing people with fertility issues to conceive. To date, ovarian organoids have been created using a mixture of human and mouse cells, which limits their relevance and translation to human disease. It is also a slow process to create such hybrid human/animal organoids. This new approach...Read More
Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a wearable that can detect when someone is talking or singing, and tallies this information up to provide a warning when the wearer might be at risk of vocal fatigue. Overusing your voice in a short space of time can lead to vocal fatigue and even injury. This technology is useful for patients with vocal disorders, but also for people who rely on their voices a lot, such as singers, politicians, and teachers. The device communicates with a smartphone app to keep track of...Read More
Researchers at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute are developing a vaccine candidate against HIV. The vaccine is intended to block HIV entry into the body and is administered to the mucosal lining of the rectum and vagina to achieve this. The formulation then stimulates antibodies against HIV in precisely the areas where the virus first enters the body’s cells. Cleverly, the researchers designed the vaccine to target the basal cells of the epithelium, which then give rise to a constant supply of epithelial cells to replace cells that are routinely...Read More
Researchers at City University of Hong Kong have developed an electrostatically charged face mask that can replenish its charge through the wearer’s breathing action. The electrostatic charge helps the mask to adsorb tiny particles, such as SARS-CoV-2 viruses. However, such masks typically lose their charge and ability to bind particles over time, particularly in humid environments such as right in front of the mouth. To address this, these researchers have created a mask with two triboelectric nylon fabric layers that replenish the charge as the layers move back and forth...Read More
Researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Australia have developed a new generation of antibodies to treat COVID-19. So far, the antibodies have been shown to neutralize several of the viral variants behind COVID-19, and the researchers hope that they will form an effective treatment for at-risk patients. Previously developed antibody treatments for COVID-19 have been rendered largely useless as the virus has mutated. Such antibodies have focused on binding to the most obvious site on the viral spike protein, the ACE2 receptor binding site, but their efficacy...Read More
Researchers at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) creaetd a Raman-spectroscopy-based urine test that can detect metabolic compounds that are produced by pancreatic and prostate cancers, potentially allowing for rapid and convenient cancer screening. The technology consists of a paper strip onto which a urine sample can be added. The paper contains ‘coral-shaped’ structures that assist in amplifying the optical signal of cancer metabolites in the urine when the paper strip is illuminated with light, letting the researchers acquire spectral signals for each sample. By analyzing urine samples from...Read More
Exclusive Look at HandX Robotic-Assisted Surgical Device from Human Xtensions
February 17th, 2023 by Medgadget Editors
Surgical robotics is dominated by various versions of the da Vinci system from Intuitive Surgical, a competent but expensive tool that's become a standard in modern advanced hospitals. It took Intuitive about 30 years to achieve this status, but there are systems from J&J, Medtronic, CMR Surgical, and others that are chipping away at the company's dominance. All of these systems operate under the "master-slave" concept, which involves a surgeon sitting behind a console, away from the patient, who manipulates the mechanical arms of the robot via some kind of...Read More
Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have developed a new method to prepare chimeric antigen receptor-T cells (CAR-T cells) for leukemia patients that could result in more effective treatment. CAR-T cells start life as T cells that are isolated from cancer patients, are stimulated and primed to recognize and attack cancer cells, expanded in number, and then reintroduced to the cancer patient with the goal that the cells will destroy their cancer. However, the technique works better in certain patients, and the researchers behind this...Read More
Researchers at MIT have developed an ingestible sensor that can reveal gastrointestinal motility issues, such as gastroparesis and gastroesophageal reflux disease. The technology is intended for use as an easy at-home method to diagnose such issues, which typically require more invasive and inconvenient procedures, such as endoscopy or X-ray imaging. This new technology is based on the concept that a magnetic field produced by an electromagnetic coil becomes weaker the further away you move from the coil. This change in field signal is predictable, allowing researchers to calculate the distance...Read More
Medicine
Levels Is Making Metabolism and Blood Glucose Tracking Accessible To Everyone
Levels has done something truly transformative: the company made continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) accessible to the general population and every day...
March 23rd, 2023
CRISPR Combined with Glowing Proteins for Viral Detection
Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have developed a sensitive diagnostic test for viral pathogens that is suitable for use in...
March 23rd, 2023
Biomimetic Construct Models Burn Injuries
Researchers at Harvard University have developed a model of burn injuries that will allow them to investigate the mechanisms underlying healing in such injuries and...
March 21st, 2023
Cardiology
Scientists Grow Electrodes Inside The Body
Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have developed a method whereby the body can ‘grow its own’ electrodes. The minimally invasive technique involves...
March 17th, 2023
Patient-Specific Soft Robotic Heart Replicas for Treatment Planning
Researchers at MIT have developed soft robotic heart replicas that closely match the anatomy of real people. The researchers used medical images of patient hearts...
March 1st, 2023
Tiny Patch for Cardiac Ultrasound Imaging
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a wearable ultrasound system for cardiac imaging. The postage stamp-sized patch can be worn on...
February 7th, 2023
Surgery
Biomimetic Construct Models Burn Injuries
Researchers at Harvard University have developed a model of burn injuries that will allow them to investigate the mechanisms underlying healing in such injuries and...
March 21st, 2023
Exclusive Look at HandX Robotic-Assisted Surgical Device from Human Xtensions
Surgical robotics is dominated by various versions of the da Vinci system from Intuitive Surgical, a competent but expensive tool that's become a standard in modern...
February 17th, 2023
Self-Assembling Peptides as a Bioink
Researchers at Rice University have developed a bioprinting method that uses self-assembling peptides as a bioink. The technique involves using "multidomain...
February 15th, 2023
Emergency Medicine
Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin
Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington, in collaboration with Shani Biotechnologies, a local firm, have created a point-of-care device that can...
November 11th, 2022
Smartphone Camera Measures Blood Oxygen
At the University of Washington a research team has developed a smartphone system that can measure blood oxygen levels. The technology uses the camera and flash of...
September 21st, 2022
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...
May 5th, 2022
Radiology
Imaging Technique Reveals Contraction Patterns During Labor
Researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development have developed a new imaging technique called electromyometrial...
March 22nd, 2023
Moving Cells Using Ultrasound
Researchers at Caltech have developed a technique that lets them move groups of cells very precisely. It involves genetically modifying cells so that they express...
March 20th, 2023
Ultrasound Catheter to Treat Hypertension
Researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Université de Paris, France, have tested an ultrasound denervation catheter in its potential to...
March 9th, 2023
Anesthesiology
Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin
Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington, in collaboration with Shani Biotechnologies, a local firm, have created a point-of-care device that can...
November 11th, 2022
Smartphone Camera Measures Blood Oxygen
At the University of Washington a research team has developed a smartphone system that can measure blood oxygen levels. The technology uses the camera and flash of...
September 21st, 2022
Perfusion Machine Restores Donor Liver for Transplant
Clinical researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland have created a perfusion machine to store donor livers before transplant. We originally reported on...
June 7th, 2022