Scientist-led conferences at Harvard, Stanford and MIT
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Smart bandage continuously measures pH and oxygen
Harvard professor Ali Khademhosseini, a doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is developing a smart bandage that determines a wound’s healing progress and distributes medicine accordingly. The prototype bandage looks like rubber, and has visible sensors tracking pH balance (for bacterial infection), and oxygen, automatically delivering oxygen or antibiotics topically. Diabetic foot ulcers might be better treated this…
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Tiny robotic gripper for cancer diagnostics, remote surgery
Johns Hopkins professor David Gracias has created a tiny, flexible, microscopic, robotic, hand-like hydrogel gripper that could help doctors perform remotely guided surgical procedures and biopsies. He believes that the materials could also, in the future, deliver therapeutic drugs to difficult to reach places. The hydrogel can swell in response to changes in temperature, acidity or light, providing…
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“Smart” insulin activates when blood sugar rises
University of Utah‘s Danny Chou has created Ins-PBA-F, a “smart” insulin which automatically adjusted blood sugar in mice with type 1 diabetes. In a recent study, the insulin worked for 14 hours. The team believes that it could be used in humans, which will require further research. Ins-PBA-F consists of a long-acting insulin derivative with…
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Apple watch will track glucose
The forthcoming Apple Watch will include the DexCom glucose tracking app. To use it, a tiny sensor must be placed under the skin to measure glucose levels every five minutes. Results will be displayed on the watch with a simple graph. While DexCom has FDA approval, due to recent a recent FDA clarification on wearable devices, other…
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Fast, scalable software analyzes the human genome
Peter White at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has developed Churchill, software that searches raw sequence data on a person’s genome for disease-causing variations in hours, not weeks. He believes that large scale analysis across populations is now possible. In tests, Churchill analyzed a whole genome sequence in 90 minutes from a raw FASTQ text-based format through to…
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Smartphone tests detect Parkinson’s
In a recent study, MIT Media Lab‘s Max Little used machine learning tools to indicate early Parkinson’s Disease in a group of smartphone users. Phones were given to Parkinson’s patients and a healthy control group. The built in accelerometer enabled Little to distinguish between those with and with out the disease with 99% accuracy. The detection method relied…
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Smartphone blood test detects HIV, Syphilis
Columbia bioengineering professor Samuel K. Sia has developed a cheap smartphone dongle that can detect three infectious disease markers from a finger prick of blood in 15 minutes. The device replicates mechanical, optical, and electronic functions of a lab based blood test. It performs an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay without requiring stored energy, as power is drawn from…
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Smartphone sensor detects cancer in breath
Professor Hossam Haick at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology has developed a sensor equipped smartphone that screens a user’s breath for early cancer detection. SNIFFPHONE uses micro and nano sensors that read exhaled breath. The information is transferred through the phone to a signal processing system for analysis. According to Haick, the NaNose system can detect benign…
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Sensor scarf heats, vibrates, can monitor vital signs
Microsoft‘s SWARM prototype smart scarf, developed with University of Maryland‘s Michele Williams, heats, which could help those with physical or mental disabilities stay warm. It also vibrates. The plan is to incorporates biometric sensors that can cause vibrations when an issue is detected with heart, breathing rate, or skin temperature data. The flexible laser-cut scarf has interchangeable…
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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.…
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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…
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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.…
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