Bioengineering News and Research

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SDB may increase risk of cancer mortality

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurocognitive disorders. New studies show that it also implies a greater risk of developing tumors, and even dying from cancer.

22 May 2012

Rice University students create mechanism to regulate IV fluids for children

Instead of building a better mousetrap, a team of Rice University freshmen took a mousetrap and built a better way to treat dehydration among children in the developing world.

16 May 2012

Rice University students invent device to help children with cerebral palsy

With the aid of multiple force sensors and a digital dinosaur, a team of Rice University seniors known as Helping Hands hopes to restore strength and flexibility to the hands and wrists of children with cerebral palsy.

11 May 2012

Prototype device would help obese patients breathe during medical procedures

The best doctors strive to relieve their patients' burdens. A physician in Houston asked Rice University students to help him do so in the most literal way. A team of bioengineering seniors built a prototype device to literally lift the weight from obese patients who, while undergoing surgical procedures, might otherwise have trouble breathing.

10 May 2012

New approach to advance quality of pregnancy monitoring

The University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bioengineering Professor Todd Coleman, in collaboration with Materials Science and Engineering Professor John A. Rogers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled "Epidermal Electronics for Continuous Pregnancy Monitoring."

10 May 2012

IBN develops biochip for investigating the effect of drugs on cancer stem cells

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world's first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute, have developed a miniaturized biochip for investigating the effect of drugs on cancer stem cells (CSCs). Published recently in Nano Today, this new technology could boost the development of more effective cancer drugs.

9 May 2012

UCLA creates crowd-sourced online gaming system to detect malaria

Online crowd-sourcing - in which a task is presented to the public, who respond, for free, with various solutions and suggestions - has been used to evaluate potential consumer products, develop software algorithms and solve vexing research-and-development challenges. But diagnosing infectious diseases?

4 May 2012

Kauffman Foundation sponsors National Conference on Value-driven Engineering

Researchers, health care engineers and medical device experts gathered this week for the inaugural National Conference on Value-driven Engineering to Improve Medical Innovation for U.S. Global Competitiveness assembled by the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA) and sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

30 Apr 2012

UCLA develops compact and cost-effective RDT-reading device

In the fight against emerging public health threats, early diagnosis of infectious diseases is crucial. And in poor and remote areas of the globe where conventional medical tools like microscopes and cytometers are unavailable, rapid diagnostic tests, or RDTs, are helping to make disease screening quicker and simpler.

30 Apr 2012

CityBusters battle illness on public transit

The best place to enjoy a breath of fresh air may be a city bus, if Rice University students have their way. A team of graduating seniors has created a system for public transit that would continually clear the air of pathogens that can lead to tuberculosis (TB), flu and pneumonia.

30 Apr 2012

UNC announces recipients of 12th Perl-UNC Neuroscience prize

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has awarded the 12th Perl-UNC Neuroscience prize to Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD of Stanford University and Edward Boyden, PhD and Feng Zhang, PhD of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

26 Apr 2012

New microfluidic device can harvest rare circulating tumor cells from blood

A research collaboration between the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston has created a microfluidic device that can harvest rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood to enable their expansion in culture for analysis.

25 Apr 2012

Computational adaptive optics for real-time in-vivo applications

Real-time, 3-D microscopic tissue imaging could be a revolution for medical fields such as cancer diagnosis, minimally invasive surgery and ophthalmology. University of Illinois researchers have developed a technique to computationally correct for aberrations in optical tomography, bringing the future of medical imaging into focus.

24 Apr 2012

Study describes new method to manufacture nerve guidance conduits

Engineers at the University of Sheffield have developed a method of assisting nerves damaged by traumatic accidents to repair naturally, which could improve the chances of restoring sensation and movement in injured limbs.

23 Apr 2012

Scientists grow hair on bald mice

Japanese researchers have successfully regrown hair on a bald mouse. This could mean hair related solutions for many men and women with baldness in future.

22 Apr 2012

Scientists discover tumor-targeting neural stem cells

Could engineered human stem cells hold the key to cancer survival? Scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world's first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute, have discovered that neural stem cells possess the innate ability to target tumor cells outside the central nervous system. This finding, which was demonstrated successfully on breast cancer cells, was recently published in leading peer reviewed journal, Stem Cells.

21 Apr 2012

New techniques show promise in detecting early-stage lung cancer

New techniques for identifying lung cancer earlier -including a new type of chest screening, a nanotech 'nose' and a method to examine the cells of the cheek-- are showing substantial promise, according to presentations at the 3rd European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva.

19 Apr 2012

T-FET biosensor can detect biomolecules at ultra-low concentrations

A new quantum mechanical-based biosensor designed by a team at University of California, Santa Barbara offers tremendous potential for detecting biomolecules at ultra-low concentrations, from instant point-of-care disease diagnostics, to detection of trace substances for forensics and security.

17 Apr 2012

HeadCase may be safe and effective for trauma victims

Undergraduate students at Rice University have come up with what they hope will prove to be a better and safer version of cervical collars to stabilize the heads and necks of accident victims. Cervical collars have been in common use since their introduction during the Vietnam War.

10 Apr 2012