Using Robots and Artificial Intelligence to Search for New Medicines
Courtesy of Dr. Adam Gormley. Adam Gormley, Ph.D., describes himself as a creative and adventurous person—albeit, not creative in the traditional sense. “Science allows me to be creative; to me, it’s a form of art. I love being outdoors, going on sailing trips, and spending time adventuring with my family. Research is the same—it’s an adventure. My creative and adventurous sides have combined into a real love for science,” he says. Dr. Gormley currently channels his passion for science into his position as an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey. Lea...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - May 24, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Cells Tools and Techniques Bioinformatics Computational Biology Medicines Profiles Source Type: blogs

Wearable Ultrasound Measures Tissue Stiffness Under Skin
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a wearable ultrasound patch that is intended to provide information on the stiffness of underlying tissues as deep as 4 cm below the surface of the skin. The patch consists of a flexible 16 x 16 ultrasonic array with a silver-epoxy composite backing layer that is designed to absorb excessive vibrations. It can provide tissue stiffness data, which could be useful in a wide array of medical scenarios, including monitoring liver cirrhosis, cancer progression, sports injuries, and myocardial ischemia. The technology is part of a new wave of wearable ultrasoun...
Source: Medgadget - May 12, 2023 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Radiology UCSD Source Type: blogs

Unlocking the Future of Health —and Care—with AI
The following is a guest article by Jonathan Jesneck, Co-Founder and CTO at Firefly Lab. Unlocking the future of healthcare with Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot topic amongst tech and medical professionals alike. Leaps and bounds have been made since the term was first applied in medicine in the mid-1950s, but it wasn’t until the late 2000s that developments using AI in a variety of healthcare fields started to happen.  Now, AI is effective across the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. The benefits are already being felt by many: 92% of healthcare institutes and professionals say they performed better as a ...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - February 7, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: AI/Machine Learning Communication and Patient Experience Healthcare IT Telemedicine and Remote Monitoring AAMC AI Chatbots AI in healthcare American Association of Medical Colleges Artificial Intelligence Biomedicine Dr. Jonathan Jesne Source Type: blogs

A Tale of Tails: How Reptile Regeneration Could Help Humans
Dr. Thomas Lozito. Credit: Chris Shinn for USC Health Advancement Communications. “I’ve always been interested in science and in lizards. I got my first pet lizard when I was around 4 years old, and it was love at first sight,” says Thomas Lozito, Ph.D., who now studies the creatures as an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery, stem cell biology, and regenerative medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. During his childhood, Dr. Lozito turned his parents’ house into a “little zoo” of lizards and amphibians. He sneaked lizards into his dorm room as a college student at Jo...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - January 4, 2023 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Cool Creatures Profiles Regeneration Research Organisms Wound Healing Source Type: blogs

Smartphone and Cheap Earbuds for Accessible Newborn Hearing Test
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a low-cost hearing test for newborns. Traditionally, the equipment for such testing is quite expensive. As newborns cannot let us know if they can hear something, the test is based on creating a noise within the ear canal and then listening to the vibrations created by the specialized hair cells within. The UW researchers used cheap earbuds that are connected to a small microphone that can listen to the vibrations of the hair cells. A smartphone app then analyzes the sounds and can provide guidance to attend a specialist if abnormal results arise. Perfor...
Source: Medgadget - November 8, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: ENT Pediatrics Telemedicine UW Source Type: blogs

Catching Up With ReMARCable Vanderbilt Graduates
Four of the first-cohort MARC scholars in April 2022. From left to right: Cassidy Johnson, Lucy Britto, Hannah Craft, and Sim Plotkin. Credit: Dr. Katherine Friedman. In 2021, we shared the perspectives of third-year undergraduates who had recently joined the first cohort of the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt’s MARC program provides mentorship and professional development opportunities to third- and fourth-year undergraduates who plan to pursue advanced degrees and are from groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical sci...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - July 13, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Training Source Type: blogs

Microfluidic Chip Models Inflammatory Intestinal Disease
Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have modeled Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (EED), a childhood inflammatory intestinal disease, on a microfluidic chip and gained new insights into the genetic changes underlying the condition. This is the first in vitro model of the disease, and highlights the power of organ on a chip systems to provide insights into complex disease states. The intestinal chip used in the research has been announced previously, but this latest study puts it through its paces using cell samples from EED patients. The researchers identified nutrients that appear to be heavily involved in some...
Source: Medgadget - July 5, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Geriatrics GI Materials Pathology harvard harvard wyssinstitute Source Type: blogs

Eko DUO Digital ECG + Stethoscope: Exclusive Interview and Review
In the latest advancements of AI and med tech, the Eko DUO stands out as a smart and reliable product with FDA-cleared artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms being used to detect leading indicators of heart disease. More significantly, this is a smart stethoscope that boasts point-of-care ECG capabilities to detect signs of heart disease such as murmurs and arrhythmias, making it truly unique in its class and one of the first of its kind being used in the clinic. The DUO is similar to Eko’s 3M Littmann CORE Digital Stethoscope in that it features enhanced acoustics that enable clinicians to amplify sounds to bett...
Source: Medgadget - June 8, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Alice Ferng Tags: Cardiology Exclusive Medicine Pediatrics Telemedicine Eko_Health stethoscope Source Type: blogs

Wearable Uses Microneedles to Track Metabolism
A team of researchers at the University of California San Diego created a wearable device that uses a disposable microneedle patch to continuously sample and analyze interstitial fluid. The wearable can measure glucose, alcohol, and lactate levels, all of which could be useful information for patients with diabetes. The disposable patch is attached to a reusable electronic device that can communicate wirelessly with a smartphone app and which can be recharged using commercially available wireless charging stations. The researchers hope that the technology can be adapted to measure other health parameters, significantly exp...
Source: Medgadget - May 16, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Diagnostics Materials Medicine Military Medicine Sports Medicine UCSD ucsdnews Source Type: blogs

Advanced Multi-Organ Chip for Personalized Medicine
Researchers at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science developed an advanced organ-on-a-chip system that incorporates heart, bone, liver, and skin tissue in independent niches that are linked with simulated vascular flows. The system even includes immune cells that circulate within the simulated vasculature. The technology represents an advance in organ-on-a-chip systems as it allows scientists to study the effects of drugs or interventions on multiple organs simultaneously. Moreover, as the engineered tissues are all created using induced pluripotent stem cells derived from a blood sample, it could a...
Source: Medgadget - May 11, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Genetics Materials Medicine Oncology Pathology columbia columbiauniversity organonchip Source Type: blogs

Career Conversations: Q & A with Immunoengineer Caroline Jones
Dr. Caroline Jones. Credit: Moises Gomez. “I find it fulfilling to be a scientist because I know that even if at some points it seems like I’m working on an incremental experiment, eventually it’s going to help solve a bigger problem,” says Caroline Jones, Ph.D., an assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. Check out the highlights of our interview with Dr. Jones to learn about her career path, her passion for sharing science with the public, and her research on sepsis—an overwhelming or impaired whole-body immune response to an insult, such as an infection or injury that’s ...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - May 11, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Tools and Techniques Cool Tools/Techniques Profiles Sepsis Source Type: blogs

Tiny Wireless Neurostimulator Delivered Through Blood Vessels
Researchers at Rice University developed a tiny neurostimulation device that can be delivered intravascularly and which does not require a battery or wired connection. At approximately the size of a grain of rice, the device can be advanced through the vasculature until it lies near a target nerve, and a clinician can then attach it to the the vessel wall for long-term implantation. The stimulator is battery-free and is powered through an external magnetic transmitter. The researchers hope that the technology could lead to a replacement for bulkier neurostimulation devices that require on-board batteries or wires that pene...
Source: Medgadget - April 11, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Materials Neurology Source Type: blogs

If You ’ ve Seen One Robot – Wait, What?
BY KIM BELLARD If You’ve Seen One Robot – Wait, What? We think we know robots, from the old school Robbie the Robot to the beloved R2-D2/C-3PO to the acrobatic Boston Dynamics robots or the very human-like Westworld ones.   But you have to love those scientists: they keep coming up with new versions, ones that shatter our preconceptions.  Two, in particular, caught my attention, in part because both expect to have health care applications, and in part because of how they’re described. Hint: the marketing people are going to have some work to do on the names.  ———– Let’s...
Source: The Health Care Blog - April 7, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Health Tech Kim Bellard robots SlimeBot Source Type: blogs

3D Microscope Quickly Reveals Features in Living Tissues
A team at Columbia University created a 3D microscope that can be used to image living tissues. The technology can help clinicians identify features in tissues without the need for histology or biopsies, and could be invaluable during surgical procedures. One application involves a surgeon using the scope to identify the boundaries of a tumor during a surgical procedure, without having to take tissue samples for rapid histological analysis. The technology also lets clinicians and researchers to roam over a tissue with the scope and then convert these data into a 3D rendering of a tissue structure, all without damaging the ...
Source: Medgadget - April 1, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Pathology Source Type: blogs

Gastrointestinal Pressure Sensor Inspired by Incan Communication Technology
Researchers at MIT have designed a gastrointestinal pressure sensor that is inspired by the ancient Incan practice of quipu, which involves adding knots to a length of string to record information. The knotted string approach has been put to good use by these MIT researchers, who discovered that introducing knots into an inexpensive gastrointestinal pressure sensor they had developed increased its sensitivity. Gastrointestinal motility issues underlie various GI conditions, but current techniques to measure gastrointestinal pressure are cumbersome and expensive. This new approach provides an inexpensive sensor ...
Source: Medgadget - March 30, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: GI Source Type: blogs