INSIDER

Recently, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, surgically implanted a pacemaker-like device into the brain of a patient in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, the first such operation in the United States. The device, which provides deep brain stimulation and has been used in...

Once a porcupine’s quill penetrates your skin, it’s very difficult to remove. That’s the inspiration behind research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, to develop new types of adhesives, needles, and other medical devices. In a new study, researchers...

Measles vaccines given using nearly painless microneedle patches can immunize against measles just as well as with conventional hypodermic needles, according to research done by the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In the study,...

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Boston, MA, have created more than 100 3D nanostructures using DNA building blocks that function like Lego® bricks. This method is the next step toward using DNA nanotechnologies for sophisticated...

As reported to the American Chemical Society (ACS), University of Minnesota researchers have discovered a previously unrecognized way that degradation can occur in silicone-urethane plastics often used in medical devices. Their study, published in ACS' journal Macromolecules, could have implications...

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, announced a four-year joint project to develop a below-knee prosthesis capable of actively powering the ankle joint powered by a gas- or liquid-based...

Electrical engineers at Oregon State University, Corvallis, have developed new technology to monitor medical vital signs, with sensors so tiny and inexpensive they could fit onto a bandage, be manufactured in high volumes, and cost less than a quarter. One potential application is heart monitoring,...

A medical sensor that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo could help doctors to detect metabolic problems in patients. Shaped like a smiley face, the entire sensor is a thin, flexible unit designed to conceal the electrodes. Designed by researchers at the Department of Physical & Environmental...

Combining medical imaging technologies, says Ge Wang, director of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's Center for Biomedical Imaging, Blacksburg, VA, could provide improved early disease screening, cancer staging, therapeutic assessment, and other aspects of personalized...

Bioengineers at Tufts University School of Engineering, Medford, MA, have demonstrated that silk-based implantable optics can enhance tissue imaging, administer heat, deliver and monitor drugs. In addition, the devices are biodegradable and biocompatible, harmlessly dissolving at predetermined rates and...

A new study shows that many implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which are designed to detect and correct dangerous heart rhythms, are programmed to too low a setting, delivering painful shocks for heart rhythms that aren’t dangerous. Making a simple change in the way physicians set...

Engineers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, tested an energy-harvesting device that uses piezoelectricity — an electrical charge generated from motion — to convert energy from a beating heart to provide enough electricity to power a pacemaker. As reported in a study presented at the American Heart...

Within all polymers, there are structural flaws at the molecular level. In an ideal network, each polymer chain would bind only to another chain. In reality, though, many of the chains bind to themselves, forming floppy loops that can weaken the network. A team of chemical engineers at Massachusetts Institute of...

Researchers at Aalto University, Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland, have developed a durable and affordable nanofibrillar cellulose(NFC) film platform to support medical testing. New environmentally friendly, reliable NFC platforms are more diverse than plastic films, they report. The new type of film can be...

Currently available commercial medical tapes work well to keep medical devices attached to the skin. But removing them can sometimes lead to skin tissue tearing, especially in babies and the elderly — those with the most fragile skin. Skin tears in babies and the elderly can range from skin irritation...

For decades, overtightening was blamed for causing surgical screws and plates used in bone repair to irreversibly fuse together, making subsequent removal difficult for the surgeon and traumatic for the patient. But a new study from the University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH, explains...

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, somewhere between 236,000 to 327,000 people in the US are living with serious spinal cord injuries. About 155,000 have paraplegia. But being able to stand and walk again is something that may someday come to be realized, say engineers at the...

It's almost Halloween and, to honor that, there’s news that researchers at The University of Manchester in the UK have demonstrated that a technology that can analyze millions of gene sequences can quickly and accurately identify diseases even in old skeletons. The scientists used a next...

Great news for the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month! Scientists say that they have developed a technology to produce 3D x-ray breast images with a radiation dose much lower than the currently used 2D radiography. This new method enables the production of 3D diagnostic computed tomography (CT) images...

Singer Art Garfunkel, Sanford Greenberg, chairman of the Wilmer Eye Institute's Board of Governors, and Jerry I. Speyer, a New York-based real estate tycoon, have joined in donating $2 million in gold bullion to inspire researchers to cure blindness by 2020, establishing through Johns Hopkins Medicine,...

Using “lean” manufacturing principles to speed up treatment times for stroke victims may improve the effectiveness of a clot-busting protein used to treat to treat and reduce brain injury after embolic or thrombotic strokes, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal...

A five-minute eye scan using optical coherence tomography (OCT) to scan nerves deep in the back of the eye, can be used to accurately determine brain damage in people with the autoimmune disorder multiple sclerosis (MS). It can also be used to predict how quickly the disease is progressing, say researchers in...

A team of scientists from the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, were awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue their work on developing a small robot that may someday air neurosurgeons in removing difficult-to-reach brain...

A team of researchers from Duke University, Durham, NC, speaking at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2012 annual meeting revealed that they have created an advanced tool to permit trainees in transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) to use an Apple iPad to obtain real-time instruction in viewing and interpreting 3D...

A study presented by Raymond Glassenberg, MD, from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, during the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2012 annual meeting demonstrated that an iPhone application called iLarynx™ he created was extremely effective at simulating a fiberoptic bronchoscopy. When students...

Researchers in the Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology Group of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech (UPC), in Barcelona, Spain, have improved the antimicrobial properties of medical textiles using an enzymatic pre-treatment combined with simultaneous deposition of nanoparticles and...

Disease and damage to the cornea can cause blindness. While corneal transplants could save sight, donor corneas may be hard to come by, and may not be tolerated. A safe artificial cornea could be a solution to saving the vision of those affected. In cooperation with the Aachen Centre of Technology...

A technology derived from NASA’s Robonaut 2 project could help astronauts stay fit in space and may someday aid paraplegics in walking on Earth. Working with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL, and engineers from Oceaneering Space Systems of Houston, NASA...

A team of researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, has used a technique called parametric response mapping (PRM) to analyze scans of the lungs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD. By analyzing the computed tomography (CT) scans of...