Harvard professor Chris Sander used clinical data from 6 million patients in Denmark’s national health system and 3 million in the U.S. VA system to train an AI model to predict the occurrence of pancreatic cancer within 3, 6, 12, and 36 months. This could allow wider screening for the aggressive disease, which is often […]
BCI / Brain
Brain-spine interface allows paraplegic man to walk
EPFL professor Grégoire Courtine has created a “digital bridge” which has allowed a man whose spinal cord damage left him with paraplegia, to walk. The brain–spine interface builds on previous work, which combined intensive training and a lower spine stimulation implant. Gert-Jan Oskam participated in this trial, but stopped improving after three years. The new […]
Sensors / Stem Cells
Hydrogel-coated sutures sense inflammation, can deliver drugs and stem cells
Giovanni Traverso has designed tough, absorbable, hydrogel-coated sutures, which in addition to holding post-surgery or wound-affected tissue in place, can sense inflammation and deliver drugs, including monoclonal antibodies. They could also be used to deliver stem cells. The sutures were created from pig tissue, “decellularized” with detergents, to reduce the chances of inducing inflammation in […]
Brain / Pharmaceuticals / Ultrasound
Implanted ultrasound allows powerful chemotherapy drugs to cross the blood brain barrier
Adam Sonaband and Northwestern colleages used a skull-implantable ultrasound device to open the blood-brain barrier and repeatedly permeate critical regions of the human brain, to deliver intravenous chemotherapy to glioblastoma patients. This is the first study to successfully quantify the effect of ultrasound-based blood-brain barrier opening on the concentrations of chemotherapy in the human brain. […]
Aging / Brain
Study: Molecular mechanism of accelerated cognitive decline in women with Alzheimer’s
Hermona Soreq, Yonatan Loewenstein, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem colleagues have uncovered a sex-specific molecular mechanism leading to accelerated cognitive decline in women with Alzheimer’s disease. Current therapeutic protocols are based on structural changes in the brain and aim to delay symptom progression. Women typically experience more severe side effects from these drugs. This research […]
Cancer / Heart / Sensors
Wearable sensor evaluates human tissue stiffness
Sheng Xu and colleagues have developed a wearable, stretchable device that non-invasively evaluates the stiffness of human tissue, at an improved penetration depth, and for a longer period than, existing methods. An ultrasonic array facilitates serial, non-invasive, three-dimensional imaging of tissues, four centimeters below the surface of human skin, at a spatial resolution of 0.5 […]