in the news… Archives

John A. Viator, Ph.D, associate professor of biomedical engineering and dermatology at the University of Missouri, has developed a new technology, that combines light and sound, to detect melanoma. It actually spots circulating tumor cells that are markers for cancer, which provides an early warning signal before actual tumors develop, potentially helping physicians deal with the disease at an earlier, more manageable stage.

From an announcement by the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS):

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Following the birth of a child, the placenta that supported life in the womb is typically thrown away.  Robert Hariri, CEO of Cellular Therapeutics gave a talk at last year’s TEDMED arguing that placenta-derived stem cells promise to offer therapy options for all sorts of diseases and conditions.  Here it is in its entirety:

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Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have devised an implantable orthopedic sensor that can provide basic data on the state of implants as tissue heals following a surgery. The device is simple and cheap to build, and is powered externally using the same device that reads the data. The researchers hope that the new technology will allow for more regular monitoring of the surgery sites and reduce postoperative CT scans, MRIs, and other expensive tests.

The wireless sensor measures only 4 millimeters in diameter and 500 microns thick. It needs no battery, no external power, and requires no electronics within the body. Instead, the sensor is powered by the external device, which is also used to capture the sensor data.

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The Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard promises long term connectivity of digital devices minus the short battery life that traditional Bluetooth has often been responsible for in the past.  Health monitoring technologies may turn out to be the biggest beneficiaries of BLE, since size and power consumption are usually critical when devices have to be worn by patients over extended periods of time.

Cambridge Consultants, a firm that helps other companies design new products, has developed an example iPhone app for interfacing a blood pressure monitor with the smartphone using BLE.  The app currently talks to a dummy device that’s really just a Bluetooth radio, but the company says the feature can be integrated into pretty much any future BP monitors.

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Engineers at Stanford University have demonstrated a tiny self-propelled device that can travel through the bloodstream in a controlled manner, potentially leading to a diagnostic and drug delivery revolution. The new device was presented by electrical engineer Ada Poon at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, California.

A common problem faced by implantable medical devices is a power source. A common workaround is to supply power wirelessly using inductive currents, avoiding the need for a bulky battery. Conventionally, high frequency radio waves are believed to conduct poorly in human tissue, so low frequency waves are used instead. However, these low frequencies require much larger coils, and therefore a bulkier device. Poon discovered, using the power of math, that high-frequency radio waves conduct in human tissue much more effectively than previously thought, and thus was able to engineer a much smaller device that is able to deliver equivalent power. Now Poon is deciding the best way to propel this remarkable device through the bloodstream. One concept involves using alternating electrical currents to make the device wobble back and forth to propel itself almost like a microscopic kayak. There are many possible applications for this new device concept, including delivering drugs and as a diagnostic tool.

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