Tag: materials science
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Ingestible Robot Designed for Stomach Objects, Wounds
13 May 2016. An engineering team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed a tiny robotic device for swallowing into the stomach to remove foreign objects and repair wounds. Researchers that include team members at University of Sheffield and University of York in the U.K., as well as Tokyo Institute of Technology, will describe the device…
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MIT Spin-Off Develops Material Mimicking Human Skin
9 May 2016. A substance that emulates properties of youthful human skin was shown in pilot tests with human subjects to outperform other materials used for wound dressings. The new polymer material, based on research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and commercialized by Olivo Laboratories, a start-up enterprise, is described in today’s issue of the…
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Nanoparticles Designed for Asthma, Allergy Treatments
19 April 2016. A technique for masking allergy or asthma treatments in biodegradable nanoparticles is shown in lab mice to quickly build a tolerance in the immune system for offending allergens. A medical and engineering team at Northwestern University in Chicago published its findings yesterday, 18 April, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…
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Implanted Device Delivers Pancreatic Cancer Drugs
15 April 2016. An engineering and medical research team developed an implanted device that in lab mice delivers chemotherapy directly to cancerous tumors in the pancreas. The device, designed in a biomedical engineering lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, is described in an article appearing 31 March 2016 in the journal Biomaterials…
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Technique Extends Bioactive Device Coating Lifetime
14 April 2016. A new process is shown to regenerate therapeutic coatings on implanted medical devices in lab tests and with animals, possibly extending the devices’ lifetimes in patients. The techniques, developed in the lab of Harvard University biomedical engineering professor Elliot Chaikof, are described in the 13 April 2016 issue of the journal Nature…
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Start-Up Licensing Biologic Delivery Nanoparticles
8 April 2016. A start-up enterprise is licensing research from a university pharmacy lab that harnesses nanoscale particles to boost the performance of biologic therapies. Financial details of the agreement between Zoetic Pharmaceuticals in Amherst, New York and University at Buffalo were not disclosed. Biologic therapies are synthetic proteins derived from living systems, such as…
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Sensor Material Developed to Detect Fuel Vapors
28 March 2016. A University of Utah engineering team designed a new ultra-sensitive material that can detect traces of hydrocarbon fuel or explosive vapors in the air. Researchers from the lab of Ling Zang published their findings earlier this month of the journal ACS Sensors; paid subscription required. Zang, a professor of engineering and materials…
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Microneedle Patch Delivers Melanoma Immunotherapy
25 March 2016. An engineering group created and tested in mice a patch with tiny needles that applies drugs stimulating the immune system to fight melanoma, an advanced form of skin cancer. The team from the lab of Zhen Gu, in a joint biomedical engineering program at North Carolina State University and University of North…
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Nanoparticles Shown to Target Tumors, Avoid Adjacent Cells
22 March 2016. A small-scale clinical trial shows cancer drugs formulated into nanoparticles accumulate in solid tumors in humans, while avoiding adjacent healthy tissue. The team from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena published its findings yesterday (21 March) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The CalTech team, led by chemical engineering…
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Implant Developed to Deliver Alzheimer’s Immunotherapy
18 March 2016. A neuroscience team from Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, or EPFL, in Switzerland designed and implanted a capsule that in lab mice generates antibodies to reduce amyloid beta plaque accumulations in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers from the lab of Patrick Aebischer, also EPFL’s president, published its findings in the…