Have a cough, sore throat and congestion? Any number of respiratory viruses could be responsible. Conventional tests can identify certain likely culprits by relying on chemical reactions, but some researchers want to swap chemistry for electrical changes sensed by nanomaterials. Today, scientists report using a single-atom-thick nanomaterial to build a device that can simultaneously detect the presence of the viruses that cause COVID-19 and the flu — at much lower levels and much more quickly than conventional tests for either. The…
… and provide targeted treatment. Most of the time, when someone gets a cut, scrape, burn, or other wound, the body takes care of itself and heals on its own. But this is not always the case. Diabetes can interfere with the healing process and create wounds that will not go away and that could become infected and fester. These kinds of chronic wounds are not just debilitating for the people suffering from them. They are also a drain on…
A new high resolution model of the CA1 region of the human hippocampus has been developed by the Institute of Biophysics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IBF) and University of Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE), part of the Human Brain Project. The single-cell resolution model, which replicates the structure and architecture of the area, along with the position and relative connectivity of the neurons, was developed from a full-scale dataset of high resolution images. The dataset is available in…
Researchers have developed a new type of neural implant that could restore limb function to amputees and others who have lost the use of their arms or legs. In a study carried out in rats, researchers from the University of Cambridge used the device to improve the connection between the brain and paralysed limbs. The device combines flexible electronics and human stem cells – the body’s ‘reprogrammable’ master cells – to better integrate with the nerve and drive limb function….
Salk scientists invent wearable microscopes to produce high-definition, real-time images of mouse spinal cord activity across previously inaccessible regions. The spinal cord acts as a messenger, carrying signals between the brain and body to regulate everything from breathing to movement. While the spinal cord is known to play an essential role in relaying pain signals, technology has limited scientists’ understanding of how this process occurs on a cellular level. Now, Salk scientists have created wearable microscopes to enable unprecedented insight…
Medical University of South Carolina researchers show that AI can be used to help to identify cirrhosis in electronic health records. The detectives There is power and value in a highly skilled detective. Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick, Watson, are famous for sifting through enormous amounts of data – identifying patterns and making predictions to uncover a mystery with ease. In the medical world, clinicians are detectives, making diagnoses and drawing conclusions based on their clinical judgment and available…
In a study, published Mar. 8 in the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dr. Jason Spector, professor of surgery (plastic surgery) at Weill Cornell Medicine and chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and his colleagues report the development of a nipple reconstruction technique using a 3D-printed scaffold made of a polymer already widely used in surgical devices. Then, they demonstrate in a preclinical model that the dissolvable scaffold and…
With the aim of being able to ensure comprehensive preclinical care in even the most remote areas of Africa, researchers from the Fraunhofer institutes for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST and for Solar Energy Systems ISE, in collaboration with Stellenbosch University and South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) in South Africa, have developed a mobile care platform which, on 3rd March 2023, was handed over to the NGO Rhiza Babuyile during a ceremonial event. The non-profit organization has a…
The success of cancer treatment depends not only on the type of tumor, but also on the surrounding tissue. Tumors influence it to their advantage, promoting the growth of blood vessels or fooling incoming immune cells. Developing methods to predict the nature of the resulting tumor microenvironment is the goal of researchers from the Clusters of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 and the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM) led by Prof. Kevin Thurley at the University of Bonn. The German Federal Ministry of…
The Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (HHI) is part of the EU project TEF-Health (Testing and Experimentation Facility for Health AI and Robotics), which aims to establish a test infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in healthcare. The infrastructure will facilitate comprehensive and rapid testing of innovative methods and enable them to reach market maturity. Led by the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) at Charité Berlin, TEF-Health involves 51 partners from nine European countries. The project started in January 2023 and will…
– paving the way for future therapies for neurological disorders. Metabolite-induced in vivo fabrication of substrate-free organic bioelectronics. The boundaries between biology and technology are becoming blurred. Researchers at Linköping, Lund, and Gothenburg universities in Sweden have successfully grown electrodes in living tissue using the body’s molecules as triggers. The result, published in the journal Science, paves the way for the formation of fully integrated electronic circuits in living organisms. “For several decades, we have tried to create electronics that…
The untethered soft robot could one day help doctors perform surgery. A tiny robot that could one day help doctors perform surgery was inspired by the incredible gripping ability of geckos and the efficient locomotion of inchworms. The new robot, developed by engineers at the University of Waterloo, utilizes ultraviolet (UV) light and magnetic force to move on any surface, even up walls and across ceilings. It is the first soft robot of its kind that doesn’t require connection to…
Sweat contains biomarkers that help doctors make health diagnoses. Wearable sensors can be used to monitor a person’s perspiration rate and provide information about the skin, nervous system activity and underlying health conditions. But not all sweat is created equal, and some cannot be measured with current sensors. A newly developed superhydrophobic biosensor could be used as a diagnostic tool to detect such types of sweat. The sensor, developed by Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, James L. Henderson, Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering…
Let’s say you needed to move an individual cell from one place to another. How would you do it? Maybe some special tweezers? A really tiny shovel? The fact is that manipulating individual cells is a difficult task. Some work has been done on so-called optical tweezers that can push cells around with beams of light, but while they are good at moving a single cell around, they are not intended for manipulating larger numbers of cells. New research conducted…
… developed for gastrointestinal inflammation therapy. Micro/nanorobots with self-propelling and -navigating capabilities have attracted extensive attention in drug delivery and therapy owing to their controllable locomotion in hard-to-reach body tissues. However, developing self-adaptive micro/nanorobots that can adjust their driving mechanisms across multiple biological barriers to reach distant lesions is still a challenge. Recently, a research team led by Prof. CAI Lintao from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a twin-bioengine yeast micro/nanorobot…
… that could revolutionize health monitoring. Breakthrough in green technology represents a new, biological paradigm in electrical engineering. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced the invention of a nanowire, 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, which can be cheaply grown by common bacteria and can be tuned to “smell” a vast array of chemical tracers—including those given off by people afflicted with different medical conditions, such as asthma and kidney disease. Thousands of these specially tuned…
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