Category: New products
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Genes Identified to Boost Vitamin A in Corn
6 October 2014. Agricultural researchers at Purdue University identified a few key genes that can increase ingredients in corn for building vitamin A in humans. And because these genes are already found in some corn varieties, say the authors, new types of corn can be developed without transferring genes from other species. The team led…
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Google Glass Captioning Developed for Hearing Impaired
3 October 2014. Computer scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta designed a system that converts speech from conversation partners to text, displayed on Google Glass systems worn by people with hearing difficulties. Google Glass is a wearable miniature computer that displays data on eyeglasses worn by the user. The software is a creation…
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Micro-Needle Capsule Designed to Replace Drug Injections
2 October 2014. Researchers designed and tested in animals a pill with tiny needles that could deliver some of the same biologic drugs now using injections. The team of engineers and medical researchers from the lab of Robert Langer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital and Technion in Israel, published…
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Smart Bandage Monitors Severe Wound Healing
1 October 2014. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston developed a paint-on covering for severe wounds that changes color to indicate the extent of healing taking place. The team from the lab of Conor Evans in Mass. General’s photomedicine center published its findings in today’s issue of Biomedical Optics Express, published by the Optical…
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Gold Nanoparticles Boost Heart Tissue Patch Performance
1 October 2014. Medical and materials scientists at Tel Aviv University in Israel designed a heart tissue repair patch that adds in gold nanoparticles to improve electrical signaling and muscle performance. The team from the lab of life sciences professor Tal Dvir published its findings last month in the journal Nano Letters (paid subscription required).…
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Solar Water-Splitting System Produces Hydrogen for Energy
26 September 2014. Engineers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland designed a solar energy system made of inexpensive and abundant materials that efficiently splits water into hydrogen and oxygen for producing electricity. The team from the lab of EPFL’s Michael Grätzel, with colleagues from Singapore and Korea, published its findings in today’s…
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Chip Emulates Human Airway Muscles to Test Asthma Treatments
24 September 2014. Biomedical engineers at Harvard University developed a model of human airway muscles on a miniaturized chip that emulates their actions during an asthma attack. The senior author of the paper describing the airway muscles chip, Kevin Kit Parker, is also a recipient of a new National Institutes of Health grant to develop…
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Safety Trial Underway for Addiction Drug Candidate
23 September 2014. A clinical trial is underway testing the safety of a new therapy designed to treat addictions and compulsive behavior by Savant HWP, a drug development company in San Carlos, California. The study is testing the compound 18-methoxycoronaridine or 18-MC, conducted in South America by a Brazilian partner company identified as Hebron Farmaceutica…
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Small Business Grant Funds Point-of-Care Sickle Cell Test
22 September 2014. A Cambridge, Massachusetts diagnostics company received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop a simple point-of-care test for sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder affecting a large percentage of people of African origin. The $225,000 grant from National Institutes of Health’s SBIR program to Daktari Diagnostics will support development…
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Gene Editing Techniques Devised to Combat Superbugs
22 September 2014. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing ways to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria by modifying the genes that make the bacteria resistant to drugs. The team from MIT’s Synthetic Biology Group, led by engineering professor Timothy Lu, published its findings yesterday in the journal Nature Biotechnology (paid subscription required). Antibiotic resistance is…