Despite its deadly reputation, carbon monoxide (CO) could save lives and boost health in the future. Chemists at the University of Sheffield in the UK have discovered a way to use targeted small doses of CO to benefit patients who have undergone heart surgery or organ transplants, as well as people suffering from high blood...

For an estimated 10 million people worldwide who are blind due to cornea damage or disease, there may be hope in the form of an innovative artificial cornea design that reportedly overcomes the limitations of existing artificial corneas. Existing cornea implants need to be made larger to prevent excess corneal tissue from growing...

The advanced resistive exercise device (ARED), now at the prototype stage of development, is a versatile machine that can be used to perform different customized exercises for which, heretofore, it has been necessary to use different machines. Conceived as a means of helping astronauts and others to maintain...

Doctors rely on a dwindling arsenal of drugs to fight bacterial infections as the bugs keep finding ways to survive. These "superbugs" may be brought to their knees with the discovery by Boston University biomedical engineers of a previously unknown chain of events occurring in bacteria when they are fed antibiotics. The three...

A report describes experiments on the effects of bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) on engineered cartilage grown in vitro. In the experiments, bovine calf articular chondrocytes were seeded onto biodegradable polyglycolic acid scaffolds and cultured in, variously, a control medium or a...

A document summarizes a study in which it was found that spores of the SAFR-032 strain of Bacillus pumilus can survive doses of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, γ radiation, and hydrogen peroxide in proportions much greater than those of other bacteria. The study was part of a continuing effort to understand the...

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for Neuroscience has developed and is using translational, interactive 3D technology to map the human brain and guide surgeons during epilepsy surgery, and to help determine the location of brain tumors for removal. The 3D mapping guides surgeons during epilepsy procedures to see exactly where...

A suite of reagents has been developed for three-dimensional crystallization of integral membranes present in solution as protein-detergent complexes (PDCs). The compositions of these reagents have been determined in part by proximity to the phase boundaries (lower consolute boundaries) of...

Inspired by the device used to find lost coins in the sand, Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineering students have invented a small handheld metal detector to help doctors locate hidden orthopedic screws that need to be removed from patients' bodies. The device emits a tone that rises in pitch as the surgeon moves closer...

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are using a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a physics-based virtual model that can simulate a patientís breathing in real time. When used in conjunction with existing 3D models, adding the fourth dimension of time could improve the accuracy...

A recently invented method of detecting a selected messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence offers two important advantages over prior such methods: it is simpler and can be implemented by means of compact equipment. The simplification and miniaturization...

University of Rochester (New York) researchers have developed custom- designed contacts for people with keratoconic eyes, which are rare but disabling. From the side, the eyes look more pointed or cone-shaped than round. The condition causes people to see halos, and double and triple images. About 1 in 2,000 people suffer from the...

The same Duke University Pratt School of Engineering research team that first developed real-time, 3D ultrasound imaging has modified the commercial version of the scanner to produce an even more realistic perception of depth. The researchers created an updated version of the image-viewing software, making it possible to achieve a...

Understanding the functional significance of the folds in the outermost layer of the brains of large mammals is one of the big open questions in neuroscience. A team led by MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School researchers recently developed a tool that could aid such studies by helping researchers "see" how...

A Fiber Optic-Based Integration System (FOBIS) has been developed that may be capable of in-situ, real-time biological monitoring, and is based on a single fiber optic system. A compact, multi-functional device, the FOBIS incorporates three working units (a Micro-Flow Cytometer, a Micro-Photometer, and a Micro-Sensor)...

The materials included in the collection of documents describe the research of the NASA Ames Fatigue Countermeasures Group (FCG), which examines the extent to which fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian disruption affect flight-crew performance. The group was formed in 1980 — in response to a...

The wearable environmental and physiological sensing unit (WEPS) is a prototype of systems to be worn by emergency workers (e.g., firefighters and members of hazardous-material response teams) to increase their level of safety. The WEPS includes sensors that measure a few key physiological and...

Medical scientists at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) have constructed the "PneuStep," a prototype pneumatic step motor that is the first of its kind. The motor was developed as part of a project for a robot that could operate precisely within the closed bore of high-intensity MRI equipment. The pneumatic nature of the...

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created customizable hydrogel microparticles capable of identifying different biomolecules, disease monitoring, drug discovery, or genetic profiling. Each particle is equipped with a bar-coded ID and one or more probe regions that turn fluorescent when they detect...

The response of tumors to anticancer drugs has been observed in real-time, 3D images using technology developed at Purdue University. The new digital holographic imaging system uses a laser and a charged couple device (CCD) to see inside tumor cells. The instrument also may have applications in drug development and medical...

Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA) have found that the p53 protein, known to guard against cancer-causing DNA damage, provides an entirely different level of cancer protection: by prompting the skin to tan in response to ultraviolet light from the sun, p53 deters the development of melanoma skin cancer....