Browse Topic: Biological sciences
Researchers from the Disruptive and Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) interdisciplinary research group of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, in collaboration with Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) and MIT, have developed a groundbreaking near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent nanosensor capable of simultaneously detecting and differentiating between iron forms — Fe(II) and Fe(III) — in living plants.
Southwest Research Institute is working to expand software normally used to model electrolytes and predict corrosion and turn it into a tool that can help determine whether ice-covered worlds have the right conditions for microbial life. The project is supported by NASA’s Habitable Worlds program, which seeks to use knowledge of the history of the Earth and the life upon it as a guide for determining the processes and conditions that create and maintain habitable environments.
Metabolic imaging is a noninvasive method that enables clinicians and scientists to study living cells using laser light, which can help them assess disease progression and treatment responses. But light scatters when it shines into biological tissue, limiting how deeply it can penetrate and hampering the resolution of captured images.
Researchers from Skoltech and the University of Texas at Austin have presented a proof-of-concept for a wearable sensor that can track healing in sores, ulcers, and other kinds of chronic skin wounds, even without the need to remove the bandages. The paper was published in the journal ACS Sensors.
Optical sensors serve as the backbone of numerous scientific and technological endeavors, from detecting gravitational waves to imaging biological tissues for medical diagnostics. These sensors use light to detect changes in properties of the environment they’re monitoring, including chemical biomarkers and physical properties like temperature. A persistent challenge in optical sensing has been enhancing sensitivity to detect faint signals amid noise.
Biosensors are devices that can monitor physiological states, like heart rate or blood pressure, or detect biological parameters such as glucose levels or the presence of specific proteins in the blood. The information biosensors collect can be used to support a medical diagnosis (for instance, a specific infection) or to provide feedback to the user on parameters of interest (for instance, the number of calories burned in a workout).
In creating a pair of new robots, Cornell researchers cultivated an unlikely component: fungal mycelia. By harnessing mycelia’s innate electrical signals, the researchers discovered a new way of controlling “biohybrid” robots that can potentially react to their environment better than their purely synthetic counterparts.
Researchers at University of Galway have developed a way of bioprinting tissues that change shape as a result of cell-generated forces, in the same way that it happens in biological tissues during organ development.
The Earth’s biosphere is the most sophisticated complex adaptive system known to exist in the entire universe and has persisted for over 4 billion years. A complex adaptive system is a network of interacting adaptive systems whose nonlinear dynamics and emergent behaviors are difficult to predict and control; therefore, for such systems, past performance is no guarantee of future results, which is particularly the case for the Earths biosphere during a period of exponential technological growth.
In a world grappling with a multitude of health threats — ranging from fast-spreading viruses to chronic diseases and drug-resistant bacteria — the need for quick, reliable, and easy-to-use home diagnostic tests has never been greater. Imagine a future where these tests can be done anywhere, by anyone, using a device as small and portable as your smartwatch. To do that, you need microchips capable of detecting minuscule concentrations of viruses or bacteria in the air.
A team has developed new biosensors with which the ratio of NADPH to NADP+ can be measured in living cells in real time for the first time. The team’s observations provide new insights into the evolution of the most important protective function of cells, cellular detoxification. NADP is involved in many reactions in the cell in which electrons are transferred between different substances.
Researchers have developed a fully embedded wireless brain neural signal recorder. The device was created by Prof. Jang Kyung-in of the department of robotics and mechanical electronics at DGIST in collaboration with a research team led by Lee Young-jeon of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology.
A Dartmouth-led research team set out to determine if managing green roof soil microbes could boost healthy urban soil development, a methodology that could be applied to support climate resilience in cities.
A team has developed a general, modular strategy for designing sensors that can be easily adapted to various target molecules and concentration ranges. The new modular sensor has the potential to significantly accelerate the development of new diagnostic tools for research.
A new handheld, sound-based diagnostic system can deliver precise results in an hour with a mere finger prick of blood. The researchers used tiny particles they call functional negative acoustic contrast particles (fNACPs) and a custom-built, handheld instrument or acoustic pipette that delivers sound waves to the blood samples inside.
The development of neural networks to create artificial intelligence in computers was originally inspired by how biological systems work. These ‘neuromorphic’ networks, however, run on hardware that looks nothing like a biological brain, which limits performance. Now, researchers from Osaka University and Hokkaido University plan to change this by creating neuromorphic ‘wetware.’
Researchers and engineers at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center have developed a prototype system for decontaminating military combat vehicles. U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC) is paving the way and helping the Army transform into a multi-domain force through its modernization and priority research efforts that are linked to the National Defense Strategy and nation's goals. CBC continues to lead in the development of innovative defense technology, including autonomous chem-bio defense solutions designed to enhance accuracy and safety to the warfighter.
Wearable devices that use sensors to monitor biological signals can play an important role in health care. These devices provide valuable information that allows providers to predict, diagnose, and treat a variety of conditions while improving access to care and reducing costs.
University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT
Brain-machine interfaces enable direct communication between a brain’s electrical activity and an external device such as a computer or a robotic limb that allows people to control machines using their thoughts. Researchers have developed a novel biohybrid neuroprosthetic research platform comprised of a dexterous artificial hand electrically interfaced with biological neural networks.
A silicone membrane for wearable devices is more comfortable and breathable thanks to better-sized pores made with the help of citric acid crystals. The new preparation technique fabricates thin, silicone-based patches that rapidly wick water away from the skin. The technique could reduce the redness and itching caused by wearable biosensors that trap sweat beneath them. The technique was developed by bioengineer and professor Young-Ho Cho and his colleagues at KAIST and reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC) is paving the way and helping the Army transform into a multi-domain force through its modernization and priority research efforts that are linked to the National Defense Strategy and nation’s goals. CBC continues to lead in the development of innovative defense technology, including autonomous chem-bio defense solutions designed to enhance accuracy and safety to the warfighter.
University of California – San Diego San Diego, CA
Ultrasound imaging and ultrasound-mediated gene and drug delivery are rapidly advancing diagnostic and therapeutic methods; however, their use is often limited by the need for microbubbles, which cannot transverse many biological barriers due to their large size. A team of researchers from Rice University have introduced 50-nm gas-filled protein nanostructures derived from genetically engineered gas vesicles(GVs) that are referred to as 50 nmGVs.
Borophene is more conductive, thinner, lighter, stronger, and more flexible than graphene, the 2D version of carbon. Now, researchers have made the material potentially more useful by imparting chirality — or handedness — on it, which could make for advanced sensors and implantable medical devices. The chirality, induced via a method never before used on borophene, enables the material to interact in unique ways with different biological units such as cells and protein precursors.
Improvements in trace biological molecule detection can have significant impact on healthcare, food safety, and environmental safety industries. Detection of trace biological molecules can be critical to the diagnosis of early onset of diseases or infections. Researchers at NASA Ames Research Center developed an electrochemical, bead-based biological sensor based on Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) combining a magnetic concentration of signaling molecules and electrochemical amplification using wafer-scale fabrication of microelectrode arrays.
Nanosensors are transforming the field of disease detection by offering unprecedented sensitivity, precision, and speed in identifying biomarkers associated with various health conditions. These tiny sensors, often built at the molecular or atomic scale, can detect minute changes in biological samples, enabling the early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer, infectious diseases, and neurological disorders.
In nature, many organisms like octopuses with their flexible tentacles or elephants with their trunks, exhibit remarkable dexterity. Inspired by these natural structures, researchers aim to develop highly flexible continuum robots that offer robustness and safety. Ideally, a continuum robot is characterized by many degrees of freedom (DOFs) and the number of joints, more than needed for most tasks. These characteristics allow them to adjust and modify their shape dynamically, enabling them to avoid obstacles and unexpected situations. However, their complex movements make it difficult to characterize their shape and motion.
Researchers at Tufts School of Engineering have developed a method to detect bacteria, toxins, and dangerous chemicals in the environment with a biopolymer sensor that can be printed like ink on a wide range of materials — including wearables.
For many patients waiting for a donor heart, the only way to live a decent life is with the help of a pump attached directly to their heart. This pump requires about as much power as a TV, which it draws from an external battery via a seven-millimeter-thick cable. The system is handy and reliable, but it has one big flaw: despite medical treatment, the point at which the cable exits the abdomen can be breached by bacteria.
Scientists have taken a significant step toward the development of tailor-made chiral nanocarriers with controllable release properties. These nanocarriers, inspired by nature’s helical molecules like DNA and proteins, hold immense potential for targeted drug delivery and other biomedical applications.
Sustainability remains a dominant trend in packaging and processing, continuing to attract the attention of the life sciences industry and inspire its new initiatives. Although pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers must prioritize patient safety and product protection, concerns about climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, plastic waste, and pressure to move toward a circular economy are prompting a greater focus on improving the sustainability of their products and packaging.
Engineers are increasingly eager to develop robots that mimic the behavior of animals and biological organisms, whose adaptability, resilience, and efficiency have been refined over millions of years of evolution.
A new robotic suction cup which can grasp rough, curved, and heavy stone, has been developed by scientists at the University of Bristol. The team, based at Bristol Robotics Laboratory, studied the structures of octopus biological suckers, which have superb adaptive suction abilities enabling them to anchor to rock.
Medical component manufacturing must meet stringent regulations for quality and product consistency, making process control a critical issue with materials, machining, assembly and packaging. This is vitally important with fluid dispensing applications used in the assembly of medical devices, point-of-care testing and near-patient testing products, medical wearables and other life sciences applications, which require accurate and consistent deposition of fluid amounts of UV-cure adhesives, silicones and other fluids in their manufacture.
Developed by engineers at the University of Bath, the prototype LoCKAmp device uses innovative Lab-on-a-Chip technology and has been proven to provide rapid and low-cost detection of COVID-19 from nasal swabs. The research team said the technology could easily be adapted to detect other pathogens such as bacteria — or even conditions like cancer.
A University of Bristol-led study, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates how to make conductive, biodegradable wires from designed proteins. These could be compatible with conventional electronic components made from copper or iron, as well as the biological machinery responsible for generating energy in all living organisms.
A novel surgical implant developed by Washington State University researchers was able to kill 87 percent of the bacteria that cause staph infections in laboratory tests, while remaining strong and compatible with surrounding tissue like current implants.
Pump systems are ubiquitous in medical and life science products, from blood pressure monitors and drug-delivery devices, to pipettors and diagnostic instruments. As the demand for smaller, less intrusive — sometimes even wearable — products grow, engineers must meet these expectations without compromising on pump system performance.
An advancement in 3D bioprinting of native-like skeletal muscle tissues has been made by scientists at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI). The key to the TIBI scientists’ approach lies in their specially formulated bioink, which contains microparticles engineered for sustained delivery of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).
Caterpillar revealed its next-generation 255 and 265 compact track loaders at its Edwards Demonstration and Learning Center in Peoria, Illinois, in October. Based on D3 series, the 255 and 265 are a ground-up redesign of the previous models. Caterpillar claims the 255 and 265 offer major improvements in lift and tilt performance, as well as greater stability and operator comfort. “We kept the DNA of the D3 series while reimagining the possibilities of loader performance using voice of customer feedback to lead the way,” said Trevor Chase, product application specialist for Caterpillar. “Both next-generation models leverage the many benefits offered by the vertical lift design. The new Cat 255 replaces the 259D3, while the 265 replaces both the 279D3 and 289D3 machines.”
Researchers have developed an integrated microfluidic chip (BSI-AST chip) for rapid AST from positive blood cultures (PBCs). Using the chip, the process from bacteria extraction to getting AST results takes less than 3.5 hours, thus promising to be a powerful new tool in managing bloodstream infections.
A novel aero-elastic pressure sensor, called eAir can be applied to minimally invasive surgeries and implantable sensors by directly addressing the challenges associated with existing pressure sensors.
Mass spectrometry (MS), which is used to identify molecules within a sample by measuring the mass-to-charge ratio of ions, is employed across many fields of study, including biology, chemistry, physics, and clinical medicine. As the technology continues to evolve, so will the applications that can benefit from this important tool.
Scientists have developed a device that works with a smartphone or tablet to capture medical images that can identify infected wounds. By capturing the heat produced by a wound and the fluorescence of bacteria, it helps clinicians tell the difference between inflammation and a potentially dangerous infection. This could allow for quicker intervention, catching infections before they become serious threats to health.
Engineering researchers have developed a next-generation miniature lab device that uses magnetic nano-beads to isolate minute bacterial particles that cause diseases.
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