Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 1054

Jan 16, 2022

Researchers turn smartphone into on-demand personalized drug 3D printer

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, mobile phones

Researchers at University College London (UCL), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC) and biopharma firm FabRx, have managed to convert an everyday smartphone into an on-demand personalized drug 3D printer.

Using the visible light created by a mobile phone screen, the modified M3DIMAKER LUX system has already proven capable of 3D printing blood-thinning tablets in specific shapes, sizes and dosages. Operable via a user-friendly app, it’s hoped that with further R&D, the team’s machine could be deployed in future by those living in isolated areas, under the remote supervision of GPs to ensure patient safety.

“This novel system would help people who need precise dosages that differ from how a medication is typically sold, as well as people whose required dosage may change regularly,” said the study’s lead author Xiaoyan Xu. “The tablet’s shape and size are also customizable, which enables flexibility in the rate at which the medication gets released into the bloodstream.”

Jan 16, 2022

New fluorescent nanovesicles for intracellular biomarker detection

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A new work by the Nanomol Group, belonging to the CIBER-BBN network, together with a team from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, presents new nanovesicles capable of crossing biological barriers such as cell membranes, while maintaining their sensing capacity, which makes them attractive probes for intracellular detection of biomarkers.

“The development of probes capable of sensing the biological environment and signaling the presence of a specific target molecule is a challenge with relevance in a variety of biomedical applications, from to diagnostic tools,” says Mariana Köber, ICMAB researcher and corresponding author of the study, together with Nora Ventosa, from ICMAB, and Alessandro Porchetta, from the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

This work, which has been published in Advanced Functional Materials, presents the design of fluorescent nanovesicles functionalized with biomimetic DNA capable of translating their binding to a target molecule into an optical output, through a change in Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and fluorescent emission.

Jan 16, 2022

Dementia Patients Used Morse Code Training to Escape From a Senior Living Facility

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, military, neuroscience

In a scene straight out of a spy movie, an elderly couple reportedly escaped from an assisted living facility using some cunning military expertise—and an antiquated telecommunications method.

On March 2, 2020, a resident of a secure memory care unit in Elmcroft of Lebanon, a Tennessee nursing facility, “eloped” with his wife from the premises, according to a state report on the incident. (The Tennessean first reported the incident last month.) The man was admitted to Elmcroft with a diagnosis of dementia, while the woman was admitted with Alzheimer’s disease.

A stranger spotted the residents, who were safe, walking two blocks from Elmcroft about 30 minutes after they left and picked them up.

Jan 16, 2022

Tarform begins delivering its slick-looking US-built electric motorcycles

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, sustainability

Brooklyn, New York-based Tarform Motorcycles began sketching out designs for its slick-looking electric motorcycles almost five years ago. Despite pandemic-related setbacks that delayed production, the company is now beginning deliveries on its first electric motorcycles.

These aren’t just any run-of-the-mill bikes though.

Unlike many of the electric motorcycles we see today that take on a more conventional design intended to please the widest audience, Tarform focused on a more bespoke, hand-made direction from the beginning.

Jan 15, 2022

Staking a Claim on the Steak of Tomorrow: 3D Printing Tech is Making ‘Meat’

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical, genetics, health

Opinions: Give your opinions in the comments section.

3D printed lab meat, and plant based meats will be more widespread in our future. Would you eat stem cell 3D printed lab meat or plant based meat? Why or why not? What are the differences between natural vs unnatural. Growing up in Texas I know most Texans frown on it, as BBQ is a religion. Is 3D printing meat sustainable\.


Whether it comes from a plant or the cells of an animal, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the meat of the future will probably not be coming from the flesh of slaughtered animals. Instead, whether made from plants or cells, it will be formed into ‘meat’ by a 3D printer. In September of 2021, a Japanese team of researchers at the University of Osaka announced that they had 3D printed Wagyu beef. Beef connoisseurs will recognize the name; Wagyu beef is prized (and suitably priced) for its flavor and fat marbling. Legends abound about the cows such beef derives from, how they are allegedly coddled and massaged, fed a special diet that includes beer — but much of those tales are either exaggerated or pure urban legend. As Joe Heitzeberg, the co-founder and CEO of Crowd Cow explains, There are four breeds native to Japan. Of those four breeds, one of the breeds is genetically unique. It has a genetic predisposition to create this crazy marbling of fat on the inside of muscle tissue. No other livestock does that. The researchers at the University of Osaka used two different types of stem cells from Wagyu cows to create cultured meat, growing living animal cells onto some type of matrix where they are then incubated and grown into animal tissue that has never been part of a living animal. There are currently no reports on the taste of the cultured Wagyu beef but we can assume it’s ‘good’ and given a little time, the technology should be able to produce excellent Wagyu cultured meat — at what price, however, is another big question mark. But there’s another simpler solution that could be a better meat replacement than cultured meat, as even meat grown from stem cells still contains cholesterol and some of the negative health concerns associated with animal protein. Plant-based imitation meat is also being created with 3D printers, and the results are surprising even hardcore meat lovers.

Continue reading “Staking a Claim on the Steak of Tomorrow: 3D Printing Tech is Making ‘Meat’” »

Jan 15, 2022

First pig-to-human heart transplant: what can scientists learn?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health, neuroscience

In a first, U.S. surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient.


Unusual opportunity

Last week’s procedure marks the first time that a pig organ has been transplanted into a human who has a chance to survive and recover. In 2021, surgeons at New York University Langone Health transplanted kidneys from the same line of genetically modified pigs into two legally dead people with no discernible brain function. The organs were not rejected, and functioned normally while the deceased recipients were sustained on ventilators.

Continue reading “First pig-to-human heart transplant: what can scientists learn?” »

Jan 15, 2022

Quadriplegic man, using two robot arms, can feed himself again

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, food, robotics/AI

Using a brain computer interface, the man cut and ate food with thought-controlled robotic hands. A man paralyzed from the neck down has used two robot arms to cut food and serve himself — a big step in the field of mind-controlled prosthetics.

Robert “Buz” Chmielewski, age 49, has barely been able to move his arms since a surfing accident paralyzed him as a teenager. But in January of 2019, he got renewed hope, when doctors implanted two sets of electrodes in his brain, one in each hemisphere.

The goal was that this brain computer interface would help Chmielewski regain some sensation in his hands, enable him to mentally control two prosthetic arms, and even feel what he is touching. man paralyzed from the neck down has used two robot arms to cut food and serve himself — a big step in the field of mind-controlled prosthetics.

Jan 15, 2022

These brain implants can predict an epileptic seizure days in advance

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Scientists have been trying to find ways to predict an epileptic seizure for decades, with little success. They are almost always unpredictable. The best techniques we have now — machine learning and self-awareness — give us only minutes notice ahead of the seizure.

Now, for the first time, a study has shown that brain activity could be used to forecast the onset of epileptic seizures several days in advance.

A New Hope

Continue reading “These brain implants can predict an epileptic seizure days in advance” »

Jan 15, 2022

The next phase of remote work will be even more disruptive

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics

But still there are many areas such as carpenter, electrician e.t.c where remote work is not possible.


As jarring as the transition to remote work was during the coronavirus pandemic, it was modest compared to what’s coming next, says Adam Ozimek, a labor economist at the freelancing platform Upwork. He argues that the next phase of remote work will transform economies, as more companies revise their policies to accommodate employees who have permanently shifted to working remotely, and more workers move to places they’ve always wanted to live but couldn’t.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Continue reading “The next phase of remote work will be even more disruptive” »

Jan 15, 2022

Japanese university uses iPS cells in first treatment of spinal cord injury

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, futurism

About 2 million cells are transplanted into each patient in the treatment. They were created from iPS cells stored at Kyoto University in western Japan, according to Keio University.

In the future, the university plans to increase the number of cells to be transplanted in order to enhance the effectiveness of the treatment.

Some 5,000 people sustain spinal cord injuries every year in Japan and the number of people living with spinal cord injuries is said to exceed 150,000.