Medical

Nanoparticles are now being used to transport chemotherapy medicine through the bloodstream, to the doorstep of cancerous tumors. Drexel University researchers believe that the trick to gaining access to the pernicious cellular masses is to give the nanoparticles a new look - and that dressing to impress will be able to get them past the tumor's biological bouncers.

Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have designed a type of pill that, once swallowed, can attach to the lining of the gastrointestinal tract and slowly release its contents. The tablet is engineered so that one side adheres to tissue, while the other repels food and liquids that would otherwise pull it away from the attachment site.

Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are researching new digitally-assisted methods of treatment and approaches on how to handle big data in medicine - initial results are already being implemented in the operating theater. "Modern molecular medicine alone witnessed more data generated in 2015 than in the entire period from 1990 to 2005," explains Burkhard Rost, Professor of Bioinformatics at the TUM.

A positioning system adapted for use in fire rescue operations will soon be tested on senior citizens in Sweden as a way to spot signs of early stage Parkinson's disease and other mobility problems. Inside the heel of a boot, advanced sensors designed at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm make it possible for emergency operations commanders to follow smoke divers' exact movements in any building — even 25 metres below groun...

Adding a digital health tool to traditional cardiac rehabilitation appears to help people recovering from a heart attack lose significantly more weight in a relatively short period of time, according to research scheduled for presentation at the American College of Cardiology's 65th Annual Scientific Session. In fact, patients using specially designed health tools on their smartphones and through a Web-based portal lost four times as much weight ...

An immunotherapy drug delivery system created at Yale that can carry multiple drugs inside a tiny particle is heading toward its first phase of clinical trials for a possible new treatment for cancer. The delivery system, a nanogel developed in the lab of associate professor Tarek Fahmy, can be used for multiple combinations of drugs for many different cancers and some immune disorders. The platform is designed to deliver multiple drugs with diff...

Nanoparticles designed to block a cell-surface molecule that plays a key role in inflammation could be a safe treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University and Southwest University in China. The scientists developed nanoparticles, or microscopic particles, to reduce the expression of CD98, a glycoprotein that promotes inflammation. Their findings ...

Elizabeth Loboa, dean of the MU College of Engineering, and her team recently tested methods to make the process of tissue engineering more cost effective and producible in larger quantities. Tissues could help patients suffering from wounds caused by diabetes and circulation disorders, patients in need of cartilage or bone repair and to women who have had mastectomies by replacing their breast tissue.

Fraunhofer researchers have developed a particulary flexible additive manufacturing method that allows them to produce bone implants, dentures, surgical tools, or microreactors in almost any conceivable design. At the Medtec medical technology tradeshow in Stuttgart, the scientists from Dresden will show their research results. The small pharmaceutical plant next to the patient's bed is no bigger than a two euro coin.

  For decades, doctors and scientists have predicted that personalised medicine—tailoring drug doses and combinations to people's specific diseases and body chemistry—would be the future of health care. A team of UCLA bioengineers and surgeons has taken a major step toward that reality.