Author: lisaweiner

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Cancer Nanoparticles Wearables

Nanoparticles + wearable to detect cancer cells

ApplySci first described Google X’s cancer detecting nanoparticle project last October.  The company has now released more detail:

1.  A user wears a bracelet designed by Google.

2.  He/she must take nanoparticle pills that look for cancer cells throughout the body.

3.  If found, the nanoparticles bind to the cancer cells, and they light up.

4.  The bracelet’s magnet attracts the cell-particle combinations.

Google has created synthetic skin, of varying thickness and tones, to test the system, as described in a recent interview with The Atlantic.

Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences

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Brain

Eye tracking measures brain injury severity

NYU‘s Uzma Samadan has developed an eye tracking device that measures the severity of concussion or brain injury.  This simple, inexpensive technology could improve the speed and accuracy of TBI diagnosis.

Researchers compared 64 healthy control subjects to 75 trauma patients at Bellevue Hospital. Pupil movement was tracked for 200 seconds while patients watched a music video.

The study showed that 13 patients who had hit their heads and had CT scans showing new brain damage, and 39 patients who had hit their heads and had normal CT scans, had significantly less ability to coordinate their eye movements than uninjured control subjects. 23 subjects who had bodily injuries but did not require head CT scans had a similar ability to coordinate eye movements as uninjured controls.

Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences

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Monitoring Sensors Wearables

Sensors, software to understand MS progression

Biogen Idec and Google X  will use sensors and software to collect and analyze data from MS patients.  The goals is to understand  environmental and biological factors that contribute to the disease’s progression, and why it progresses differently in every patient.  Andrew Conrad, head of Life Sciences at Google X, believes that this will lead to earlier interventions and better outcomes.

Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – The Health Sensor Revolution.  June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences.

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Brain EEG fMRI

Brain scans for customized treatment

MIT‘s John Gabrieli is investigating the use of neuroimaging to predict future behavior to customize brain health treatments.

Professor Gabrieli believes that neuromarkers, determined by fMRI,  can be used to develop personalized interventions to improve education, health, addiction, criminal behavior and to analyze responses to drug or behavioral treatments.

According to Gabrieli, “Presently, we often wait for failure, in school or in mental health, to prompt attempts to help, but by then a lot of harm has occurred.  If we can use neuroimaging to identify individuals at high risk for future failure, we may be able to help those individuals avoid such failure altogether.”

The cost of fMRI could pose a challenge for implementation.  Cheaper, quicker, mobile EEG solutions could complement this research, and help bring  imaging to the forefront of  treatment.

Join ApplySci at Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences.

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Autism Brain Parkinson's

Video game eye movement to diagnose brain disorders

University of Chicago professor Leslie Osborne believes that the classic Atari game “Pong” is ideal for tracking eye movement, therefore helping  diagnose Parkinson’s, TBI or autism

Osborne’s lab focuses on eye movement behavior, known as smooth pursuit, that allows eyes to track moving targets.  At the recent Brain Research Foundation conference,  her paper showed that “when motion becomes predictable, gaze behavior is no longer captured by the same decision rule.  Researchers hope to apply this information to quantify the interaction between target, gaze, and time.  In a clinical context, researchers hope that it will expand the toolkit for diagnosing brain disorders which affect gaze behavior.”

This is classic video game maker Atari’s second newsworthy development in recent weeks.  In December ApplySci described Atari’s digital health partnership with Walgreen’s.

Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences

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BCI Brain EEG Stroke

Stroke detecting headset prototype

Samsung’s Early Detection Sensor & Algorithm Package (EDSAP), developed by  Se-hoon Lim, is meant to detect early signs of stroke.

A multiple sensor headset records electrical impulses in the brain, algorithms determine the likelihood of a stroke in one minute, and results are presented in a mobile app.  EDSAP can also analyze stress and sleep patterns, and potentially be used to monitor heart activity.  The company believes that the system can one day be built into one’s own glasses.

Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences

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Sensors Wearables

Silver nanowire wearable claims greater accuracy

Yong Zhu and North Carolina State colleagues  have developed a silver nanowire wearable sensor to monitor EKG and EMG.  They claim that the dry sensor is as accurate as wet electrode hospital sensors and  works while a wearer is moving.

According to Zhu,  “the silver nanowire sensors conform to a patient’s skin, creating close contact.  Because the nanowires are so flexible, the sensor maintains that close contact even when the patient moves. The nanowires are also highly conductive, which is key to the high signal quality.”

In January, 2014, ApplySci described Professor Zhu’s early silver nanowire sensor work, which led to this wearable.  The accuracy of wearables will be a main focus of Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences

Categories
Eyes

Sensor glasses support retinal prosthesis

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and Second Sight are developing  glasses with embedded vision and eye tracking sensors to be used with a  new retinal prosthesis system.  The system will identify obstacles, doorways, hallways, and household objects and their relative positions. The information will be projected into the retinal prosthesis, bypassing the damaged rods and cones in the retina.

The components are meant to enable APL‘s  broader vision of a semiautonomous controller for assistive robotic manipulators and remote devices, called Hybrid Augmented Reality Multimodal Operation Neural Integration Environment (HARMONIE).

Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences

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Sensors Wearables

Ear sensor monitors driver alertness

Fujitsu’s FEELythm is a wearable sensor that tracks pulse to detect drowsiness in drivers.  An algorithm monitors vital signs via a sensor attached to the earlobe, gauges drowsiness, and notifies the driver.  When used commercially,  it notifies the driver’s fleet manager. It can connect to onboard devices and link to fleet management systems for real time monitoring.

The company claims to be able to predict  commercial driving dangers before they occur by creating a hazard map for fleet managers based on sensor data indicating fatigue, stress, and tension.

Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences

Categories
Autism Brain Children fMRI

Brain imaging technique identifies autism

Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute professor P. Read Montague has developed a brain imaging technique that may be able to identify autism in children.  Current diagnosis is a long an unquantifiable process based on clinical judgment.

The study demonstrates that a perspective tracking response can be used to determine whether someone has autism spectrum disorder.  It investigates how the middle cingulate cortex response differs in individuals at different developmental levels.

Children were shown 15 images of themselves and 15 images of a child matched for age and gender for four seconds per image in a random order. The control children had a high response in the middle cingulate cortex when viewing their own pictures. Children with autism spectrum disorder had a significantly diminished response.

According to Montague, “the single-stimulus functional MRI could also open the door to developing MRI-based applications for screening of other cognitive disorders.”  Scientists can link the function of mental disorders to the disrupted mechanisms of neural tissue through mathematical approaches, such as brain scans.  Doctors then can use measurable data for earlier diagnosis and treatment.

Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences

Categories
Brain

Vagal blocking implant to treat obesity

Maestro by EnteroMedics is an implanted vagus nerve blocking sensor that could suppress  appetite to treat obesity.  The rechargeable neuroregulator device is implanted into the lateral chest wall with flexible leads placed laparoscopically around the vagus nerve.    The vagus nerve is stimulated,  sending signals to the brain that the stomach is empty or full.  Patients and doctors can adjust the device settings using external controllers.

The company said that the two electrodes are implanted via a minimally invasive surgical procedure, which could make the system a less invasive alternative to other weight loss surgeries. The external battery needs to be recharged weekly.  EnteroMedics compares it to a pacemaker.

Sensors that affect the vagus nerve/brain have the potential to be used to treat many conditions.  We look forward to seeing how this technology develops.

Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015 – June 30 @ New York Academy of Sciences

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Diabetes Sensors Wearables

Noninvasive sensor tattoo detects glucose levels

UC San Diego professor Joseph Wang has developed an ultra-thin, flexible device that sticks to skin like a tattoo and can detect glucose levels.  The sensor  has the potential to eliminate finger-pricking for diabetes.

The wearable, non-irritating sensor tattoo can detect glucose in the fluid just under the skin.  It is based on integrating glucose extraction and electrochemical biosensing.  Testing on seven volunteers showed  that it was able to accurately determine glucose levels. The sensor response correlated with that of a commercial glucose monitor.

Noninvasive monitoring will be one of the disruptive innovations discussed at  Wearable Tech + Digital Health NYC 2015:  The health sensor revoltion on June 30, 2015 at the New York Academy of Sciences.