Relief may be on the horizon for anyone who has ever jumped around a room like a jack-in-the-box to get motion-sensing lights to turn back on. A new motion sensor based on metamaterials is sensitive enough to monitor a person’s breathing. In a pair of new studies, researchers from Duke University and Institut Langevin, France, have shown that patterns made by radio waves can detect a person’s presence and location anywhere inside...

Engineers at Duke University have developed a way to manipulate, split and mix droplets of biological fluids by having them surf on acoustic waves in oil. The technology could form the basis of a small-scale, programmable, rewritable biomedical chip that is completely reusable for disparate purposes from on-site diagnostics to laboratory-based research. The study appears in the journal Nature Communications.

Individual regions of the brain have to team up to get things done. And like in any team, the key to working together is communication. Duke researchers used brain imaging to identify how patterns of brain connectivity -- the ability of different brain regions to talk to each other -- can affect a person’s likelihood of developing common forms of mental illness. Surprisingly, they found that brain regions that help process what we...

Researchers at Duke University have created a framework for helping bioengineers determine when to use multiple lines of cells to manufacture a product. The work could help a variety of industries that use bacteria to produce chemicals ranging from pharmaceuticals to fragrances. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A sensor technology that can determine the real-time tread wear of tires on the road has been licensed from Duke University by a startup company backed by a leader in parts distribution and provider of replacement tires for automotive dealerships. Tyrata, Inc., has announced the closing of $4.5 million in series A financing from several investors, including a leading investment by Dealer Tire, LLC.

  Biomedical engineers have grown the first functioning human skeletal muscle from induced pluripotent stem cells. The advance builds on work published in 2015 when researchers at Duke University grew the first functioning human muscle tissue from cells obtained from muscle biopsies.

  Materials scientists at Duke University have developed a method to create hybrid thin-film materials that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to make. The technique could be the gateway to new generations of solar cells, light-emitting diodes and photodetectors. The research team described their methods in the journal ACS Energy Letters.

Biomedical engineers have grown miniature human blood vessels that exhibit many of the symptoms and drug reactions associated with Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome—an extremely rare genetic disease that causes symptoms resembling accelerated aging in children. The technology will help doctors and researchers screen potential therapeutics for the disease more rapidly, with the goal of eventually creating a platform for personalised ...

  Electrical engineers at Duke University have invented an inexpensive printed sensor that can monitor the tread of car tyres in real time, warning drivers when the rubber meeting the road has grown dangerously thin.

  Biomedical engineers at Duke University have created a technology that might provide weeks of glucose control for diabetes with a single injection, which would be a dramatic improvement over current therapies. In primates, the treatment has been shown to last for weeks, rather than days.

Duke University researchers have developed a handheld device for cervical cancer screening that promises to do away with uncomfortable speculums and high-cost colposcopes. The 'pocket colposcope' is a slender wand that can connect to many devices, including laptops or cell phones. If widely adopted, women might even use the device to self-screen, transforming screening and cure rates in low-income countries and regions of the United Sta...

Worn out cartilage in the knees is a major cause of disability and once it’s worn out there’s nothing ideally suited to replace it. Osteoarthritis develops,and eventually much of the entire knee is often replaced, with variable success. Researchers at Duke University have been working on creating a material that can serve as a cartilage replacement and they have already developed something at least as strong and pliable as the cartila...

A Duke Health-led research team has described both the pathway of HIV protective antibody development and a synthetic HIV outer envelope mimic that has the potential to induce the antibodies with vaccination. "A goal for an HIV-1 vaccine is to induce broadly neutralising antibodies," said senior author Barton F. Haynes, M.D., director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI).

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have discovered a way to detect signs of cancer on a cell-by-cell basis using two lasers and a camera. Several medical devices currently in use and in clinical trials around the world look for increases in cellular stiffness as an indicator of cancerous tissue. These devices, however, rely on readings from many cells clustered together within the body and cannot operate on a cellular level.

Scientists at Duke University have developed a way of concentrating nanoparticles inside a small device using only sound waves. This achievement may help introduce portable diagnostics that rely on attaching nanoparticles to biomarkers such as proteins and measuring how many find their targets. Nanoparticles tagged with fluorescent markers to make them easier to see are concentrated in a column by a new acoustic whirlpool device.

  By suspending tiny metal nanoparticles in liquids, Duke University scientists are brewing up conductive ink-jet printer "inks" to print inexpensive, customisable circuit patterns on just about any surface.

Duke University researchers believe they have overcome a longstanding hurdle to producing cheaper, more robust ways to print and image across a range of colours extending into the infrared. As any mantis shrimp will tell you, there are a wide range of "colours" along the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot see but which provide a wealth of information.

Research Triangle engineers have developed a simple, energy-efficient way to create 3D acoustic holograms. The technique could revolutionise applications ranging from home stereo systems to medical ultrasound devices. Most everyone is familiar with the concept of visual holograms, which manipulate light to make it appear as though a 3-D object is sitting in empty space. These optical tricks work by shaping the electromagnetic field so that i...

Researchers have used CRISPR to convert cells isolated from mouse connective tissue directly into neuronal cells. In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka, a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University at the time, discovered how to revert adult connective tissue cells, called fibroblasts, back into immature stem cells that could differentiate into any cell type.

Eight people who have been paralysed from spinal cord injuries have regained partial sensation and muscle control in their lower limbs after training with brain-controlled robotics, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The patients used brain-machine interfaces, including a VR system that used brain activity to simulate full control of their legs. Videos illustrate their progress.