Health, Medicine, & Biotechnology

Extraction of Largely Unexplored Bodily Fluid Could Be a New Source of Biomarkers

Fluid could provide a new source of information for routine diagnostic testing.

Test Your Knowledge About Wearable Technology

See how much you know about wearable technology and the progress it has made.

Future Wearable Health Tech Could Measure Gases Released from Skin

Some wearable devices are already capable of measuring pulse rates or temperatures, but this team’s method would allow the technology to sense biomarkers related to metabolic disorders, like heart disease or diabetes.

Light-Emitting Tattoo

The OLEDs are fabricated onto temporary tattoo paper and transferred to a new surface by being pressed onto it and dabbed with water.

An Accurate and Inexpensive COVID-19 Testing Device

The device could transform public health officials’ ability to quickly detect and respond to the coronavirus — or the next pandemic.

Nano-Thermometers for Temperature Imaging

The final product could make temperature measurements that are 10 times more precise than state-of-the-art techniques, acquired in one-tenth the time in a volume 10,000 times smaller.

COVID-19 Test Uses Smartphone Cameras to Spot Virus RNA

Unlike other tests, this test gives an estimate of viral load or the number of virus particles in a sample, which can help doctors monitor the progression of a COVID-19 infection and estimate how contagious a patient might be.

Smartphone-Powered Microchip Enables At-Home Medical Diagnostic Testing

The innovation opens the door for faster and more affordable at-home medical testing.

Flexible Backing Improves Brain-Computer Interface

Adding a flexible backing to this kind of brain-computer interface allows the device to more evenly conform to the brain’s complex curved surface and to more uniformly distribute the microneedles that pierce the cortex.

New Imaging Technology Reduces Need for Skin Biopsies

Instead of surgically removing a sample of skin, sending it to a lab, and waiting several days for results, your dermatologist takes pictures of a suspicious-looking lesion and quickly produces a detailed, microscopic image of the skin. This could become routine in clinics.

Miniature Optical Fiber Treatment Device Offers More Effective Cancer Immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy, one of the most important and promising therapies for cancer treatments, is being used by oncologists to treat patients suffering from many different cancers including breast, cervical, colon, stomach, and skin.

Smart Skin Mimics the Sensing Capabilities of Natural Skin

Study confirms that hydrogels work in a similar way to how humans detect pressure, paving the way for more ionic devices.

Artificial Intelligence Tech Set to Transform Heart Imaging

The team compared its AI approach, known as virtual native enhancement, with contrast-enhanced CMR scans now used to monitor hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common genetic heart condition.

Smart Microrobots Walk Autonomously

A collaborative effort has installed electronic “brains” on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size — smaller than an ant’s head — so that they can walk autonomously without...

Novel Chemical Glucose Sensing Method Based on Boronic Acids and Graphene Foam

Since it is a chemical sensor instead of being enzyme-based, the new technology is robust, has a long shelf-life and can be tuned to detect lower glucose concentrations than current systems.

Light-Sensing 3D-Printed Device Could Help People with Lupus

A team of engineers and doctors at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have designed a unique 3D-printed light-sensing medical device that is placed directly on the skin and...

Electronic Skin Anticipates and Perceives Touch from Different Directions for the First Time

Scientists develop a new approach for miniaturization of soft ultra-compact and highly integrated sensor units for directional tactile sensitivity in e-skin systems.

Future Wearable Health Tech Could Measure Gases Released from Skin

Scientists have taken the first step to creating the next generation of wearable health monitors.

Thin, Stretchable Biosensors Could Make Surgery Safer

Researchers formulated and synthesized the bio-inks, with the goal of creating create an ultra-soft, thin, and stretchable material for biosensors that is capable of seamlessly interfacing with the surface of organs.

New Technology Could Make Biopsies a Thing of the Past

MediSCAPE is a highspeed 3D microscope capable of capturing images of tissue structures that could guide surgeons to navigate tumors and their boundaries without needing to remove tissues and wait for pathology results.

Researchers Demonstrate 40-Channel Optical Communication Link

It achieves 40 channels by combining a frequency comb light source based on a new photonic crystal resonator developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with an optimized mode-division multiplexer.

Walking Feeds Pressure to Pneumatic Robots That Could Help Those with Disabilities

Mechanical engineers at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering have built a handy extra limb able to grasp objects and go, powered only by...

Purdue’s Micro-Robot Could Help Treat Stroke Patients

A magnetically controlled medical device to remove blood accumulating in the brain during a stroke.

New Smart Masks Can Monitor Health

A researcher at MU College of Engineering at the University of Missouri is developing a smart mask that could monitor someone’s physiological status based on the nature of the person’s cough.

A New Kind of Transistor — A Conductive Polymer

A new material holds promise for the next generation of organic electronics.

Smart Implants to Monitor Healing

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering are creating patient-specific 3D-printed smart metamaterial implants that double as sensors to monitor spinal healing.

3D Printing of Organic Electronics

Professor Mohammad Reza Abidian of the Cullen College of Engineering — foresees the future production of micro-scale organic electronics via multiphoton 3D printers.