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Implanted medical devices such as glucose-level sensors, pacemakers, catheters, and others add quality of life, deliver lifesaving medicine, or protect the lives of patients who need them - but those same devices are at risk from the patients themselves. "One of the biggest problems with...

Using chemical "nanoblasts" that punch tiny holes in the protective membranes of cells, Georgia Tech researchers have demonstrated a new technique for getting therapeutic small molecules, proteins, and DNA directly into living cells. The work is believed to be the first to use activation of reactive carbon nanoparticles by lasers for...

A sniffing-based device developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel may enable disabled people to navigate wheelchairs or communicate with loved ones. The system identifies changes in air pressure inside the nostrils and translates these into electrical signals. In the future, researchers predict that this...

A new vaccine-delivery patch based on hundreds of microscopic needles that dissolve into the skin could someday allow people without medical training to painlessly administer vaccines. The new patch could also help prevent unsafe reuse of hypodermic needles, particularly in parts of the world with poor medical infrastructure.

Developed at the University of Sussex, the Electric Potential Sensors (EPS) are the first electrical sensors that can detect precisely the electrical activity of the heart without direct resistive contact with the body. The new sensors can detect a heartbeat up to a meter away, and make monitoring a patient's heartbeat easier...

Researchers from Rice University and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have used an off-the-shelf digital camera to create an inexpensive device that is powerful enough to let doctors easily distinguish cancerous cells from healthy cells, simply by viewing the LCD monitor on the back of the camera.

A new ultrasensitive medical imaging technique developed at Purdue University uses a pulsed laser and tiny metallic "nanocages" to enable both the early detection and treatment of disease. The system works by shining near-infrared laser pulses through the skin to detect hollow nanocages and solid nanoparticles that are injected into...

TOUCH-FREE WIRELESS SENSING UC San Diego electrical engineering PhD student Yu Mike Chi has developed a wireless sensor that records "biopotentials" - tiny voltage signals that appear on the skin surface - without touching the skin. Biopotentials emanate from electrically active cells, such as neurons and cardiac cells,...

A compound found in sunless tanning spray may help to heal wounds following surgery, according to research by biomedical engineers at Cornell University.

University of Florida engineers have developed a prototype of a "tattletale pill" by adding a tiny microchip and digestible antenna to a standard pill capsule. The prototype opens up the possibility that mass-produced pills will someday be equipped to inform doctors and loved ones that patients have ingested their medication.

A team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will send an army of microorganisms into space to investigate new ways of preventing the formation and spread of biofilms - or clusters of bacteria - that could pose a threat to the health of astronauts.

The field of biosensors may be getting a boost from an unlikely source: coffee rings. UCLA researchers are studying the "coffee ring" phenomenon - the observation that many liquids, when spilled, evaporate to leave a darker ring around the perimeter that contains a much higher concentration of particles than the center. A...

Researchers at Ohio State University have developed a way to enhance how brain tumors appear in MRI scans and during surgery, making the tumors easier for surgeons to identify and remove.

An ultrasensitive medical imaging technique from Purdue University, which uses a pulsed laser and tiny metallic "nanocages," might enable early detection and treatment of disease. The system works by shining near-infrared laser pulses through the skin to detect hollow nanocages and solid nanoparticles - made of an...

It's illegal for health products with medical formulations to be accepted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration without tests on animals - a situation that has serious ethical and moral implications. New research in the field of tissue engineering, by Professor Amit Gefen of Tel Aviv University's Faculty of...

Researchers from Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Pennsylvania are the first to demonstrate a flexible silicon electronics device used for a medical application. The device produced high-density maps of a beating heart's electrical activity, providing a potential...

Vesicular stomatitis virus, or VSV, has long been a model system for studying and understanding the life cycle of negative-strand RNA viruses. Research has shown that VSV has the potential to be genetically modified to serve as an anti-cancer agent - exercising high selectivity in killing...

A "metal foam" developed by North Carolina State University researchers could mean a new generation of biomedical implants that would avoid bone rejection that often results from more rigid implant materials, such as titanium. The metal foam is lighter than solid aluminum and can be made...

University of Michigan engineers have developed an artificial foot that recycles energy otherwise wasted in between steps, which could make it easier for amputees to walk. A typical prosthesis doesn't reproduce the force a living ankle exerts to push off of the ground. As a result, test subjects...

Using lasers and nanoparticles, Rice University scientists have discovered a new technique for singling out individual diseased cells and destroying them with tiny explosions. The scientists used lasers to make "nanobubbles" by zapping gold nanoparticles inside cells. "Single- cell targeting is one of the...

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have created a hydrogel that is more than 50 times stronger than comparable squishy self-healing materials. The hydrogel is made up of 95 percent water, making it suitable for applications in the body; it could someday serve as scaffolding for new...

University of Leeds scientists have developed a portable magnetometer that offers a new level of sensitivity to magnetic fluctuations useful for early detection of a number of conditions, including heart problems in fetuses.

Using new technology developed in his University of Oregon lab, chemist Andrew H. Marcus and his doctoral student, Eric N. Senning, have captured what they describe as well-orchestrated, actin-driven, mitochondrial movement within a single cell. That movement appears to be coordinated by mitochondria's recruitment of...

NASA's John H. Glenn Research Center has developed VESGEN, a newly automated, user interactive program that maps and quantifies the effects of vascular therapeutics and regulators on microvascular form and function. VESGEN analyzes two-dimensional, black and white vascular images by...

University of Florida engineers have designed and tested versions of a sensor that can diagnose and treat a variety of diseases, for example, by monitoring diabetics' glucose levels via their breath or detecting possible indicators of breast cancer in saliva. The sensor can be mass-produced inexpensively with technology currently used...

University of Florida urologists have used robot-assisted surgery to cut about 20 minutes off the average surgery time for conventional vasectomy reversal using a microscope.

Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineers, working with colleagues at Seoul National Laboratory in Korea, have produced a laboratory chip with nanoscopic grooves and ridges capable of growing cardiac tissue that more closely resembles natural heart muscle. The scientists say this chip could be used to design new...

Ophthalmic surgeons at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas are the first in the Defense Department to employ a state-of-the-art laser that will shorten recovery times for corneal transplantation. They are using a femtosecond laser to dissect human cornea tissue for cornea transplants or refractive surgery.

Johns Hopkins University researchers have developed biodegradable nanosized particles that can bypass the body's mucus secretions to deliver a sustained-release medication cargo. The nanoparticles, which degrade over time into harmless components, could someday be used to carry life-saving drugs to individuals suffering...