Category: Medical Research & Technology

Categories : General Interest Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Boy Walks With Help of A Robotic Exoskeleton his Father Designed

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Photo by Rachel Kuo on Unsplash

Though it’s not quite as fantastic as Iron Man’s super-powered exoskeleton, a robotic exoskeleton designed by his father’s company helps 16 year old Oscar Constanza to walk. Oscar has a genetic neurological condition that means his nerves do not send enough signals to his legs.

Fastened to his shoulders, chest, waist, knees and feet, the exoskeleton enables Oscar to walk across the room and turn around. The exoskeleton is a voice-operated robot, responding to the user’s verbal commands, rather than other designs which respond to user movements or nerve signals.

“Before, I needed someone to help me walk … this makes me feel independent,” said Oscar.

His father Jean-Louis Constanza is one of the co-founders of the company that makes the exoskeleton, which is called Atalante.

“One day Oscar said to me: ‘dad, you’re a robotic engineer, why don’t you make a robot that would allow us to walk?’” his father recounted
“Ten years from now, there will be no, or far fewer, wheelchairs,” he said.

Exoskeletons are being produced around the world, with a wide variety of applications including, the military, industrial work and in healthcare to help nurses move and position patients. During the COVID pandemic, they have even been evaluated for use in the physically taxing task of prone positioning of COVID patients in ICU wards. Some, like Wandercraft’s model, are designed to help people with mobility problems to walk.

Since most are still quite heavy, manufacturers are competing to make them as light and usable as possible.

Wandercraft’s Atalante exoskeleton, which is an outer frame that supports but also simulates the movement of the wearer’s body, has been sold to dozens of hospitals in France, Luxembourg and the United States, with a unit price of about $176 000, said Constanza. The Atalante exoskeleton is currently aimed at use in physical rehabilitation in stroke and spinal cord injury patients.

At the moment, it cannot be bought by private individuals for everyday use – but the Wandercraft engineers are working on this as the design would need to be much lighter.

Source: New York Post

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Artificial Sweetener Delivers a Protective Carbon Monoxide Dose

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Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

An oral prodrug has been developed which uses artificial sweeteners to deliver a protective carbon monoxide dose which protects against acute kidney injury.

Although carbon monoxide (CO) gas is toxic in large doses, with some 50 000 people suffering CO poisoning each year in the US, scientists have discovered it can reduce inflammation and protect cells against injury. The  protective effects of CO against injury in the kidneys, lungs, gastrointestinal tract and liver, among other organs has been shown in previous research. For the past five years, Wang and his collaborators have worked to design a safe way to deliver CO to human patients via prodrugs, which are inactive compounds that must undergo a chemical process in the body to release the active pharmacological agent. Their paper was published in Chemical Science.

Using two common artificial sweeteners, saccharine and acesulfame, as ‘carrier’ molecules for a prodrug, Prof Wang’s team were able to create an oral administration route for CO. They designed the molecules to release CO as they decomposed from water exposure. These are the first examples of orally active, organic CO prodrugs using a benign carrier that is approved by the Food & Drug Administration with a demonstrated safety profile.

“It’s difficult to deliver a gas, much less a poisonous gas, as a therapeutic to patients, and this work represents a pivotal step forward in developing alternative delivery forms,” said Prof Wang, a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. “We wanted to work with a carrier that has a very well characterized safety profile, which confers a higher degree of certainty that it will be safe to use in a pill for human consumption.”

The scientists tested one of the prodrugs, CO-306, for pharmacological efficacy against acute kidney damage. CO-306, which uses saccharine as a carrier molecule, was administered to mice and it was found that it reduced biomarkers for kidney injury, indicating it could be developed working therapy. The type of kidney injury modelled mimicked those in humans that occur with extensive muscle damage, sickle cell disease, a common type of malaria, cardiopulmonary bypass surgery and severe sepsis.

Further animal model studies and safety assessments on CO-306 are planned by Wang and colleagues before they progress to human clinical studies. They also plan to test CO-306 for efficacy against other types of organ injuries.

Additionally, CO-based therapies hold promise as a method of reducing the likelihood of organ damage during transplantation and improving outcomes for transplant patients, according to Prof Wang.

“Science shows that exposing organs to CO gas can help preserve organs and prevent them from deteriorating during the process of transplantation,” he said. “Now we need to demonstrate that these prodrugs can have a similar effect.”

Source: Georgia State University

Journal information: De La Cruz, L. K., et al. (2021) Adapting decarbonylation chemistry for the development of prodrugs capable of in vivo delivery of carbon monoxide utilizing sweeteners as carrier molecules. Chemical Science. doi.org/10.1039/D1SC02711E.

Categories : Medical Research & Technology Neurodegenerative DiseasesTags :

MRI and Ultrasound Combo Opens Blood-brain Barrier

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In a mouse model study of MRI-guided focused ultrasound-induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening at MRI field strengths ranging from ­approximately 0 T (outside the magnetic field) to 4.7 T, the static magnetic field dampened the detected microbubble cavitation signal and decreased the BBB opening volume. Credit: Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Using a combination of ultrasound, MRI field strength and microbubbles can open the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and allow therapeutic drugs to reach the diseased brain location with MRI guidance. 

Using the physical phenomenon of cavitation, it is a promising technique that has been shown safe in patients with various brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s diseases, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and glioblastoma.
While MRI has been commonly used for treatment guidance and assessment in preclinical research and clinical studies, until now, researchers did not know the impact that MRI scanner’s magnetic field had on the BBB opening size and drug delivery efficiency.

Hong Chen, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, and her lab have found for the first time that the magnetic field of the MRI scanner decreased the BBB opening volume by 3.3-fold to 11.7-fold, depending on the strength of the magnetic field, in a mouse model. The findings were in Radiology.

Prof Chen conducted the study on four groups of mice. After they were injected microbubbles, three groups received focused-ultrasound sonication at different strengths of the magnetic field: 1.5 T (teslas), 3 T and 4.7 T, and one group was never exposed to the field. 

The researchers found that the microbubble cavitation activity, or the growing, shrinking and collapse of the microbubbles, decreased by 2.1 decibels at 1.5 T; 2.9 decibels at 3 T; and 3 decibels at 4.7 T, compared with those that had received the dose outside of the magnetic field. Additionally, the magnetic field decreased the BBB opening volume by 3.3-fold at 1.5 T; 4.4-fold at 3 T; and 11.7-fold at 4.7 T. No tissue damage from the procedure was seen.

Following focused-ultrasound sonication, the team injected a model drug, Evans blue dye, to investigate whether the magnetic field affected drug delivery across the BBB. The images showed that the fluorescence intensity of the Evans blue was lower in mice that received the treatment in one of the three strengths of magnetic fields compared with mice treated outside the magnetic field. The Evans blue trans-BBB delivery was decreased by 1.4-fold at1.5 T, 1.6-fold at 3.0 T and 1.9-fold at 4.7 T when compared with those treated outside of the magnetic field.

“The dampening effect of the magnetic field on the microbubble is likely caused by the loss of bubble kinetic energy due to the Lorentz force acting on the moving charged lipid molecules on the microbubble shell and dipolar water molecules surrounding the microbubbles,” said Yaoheng (Mack) Yang, a doctoral student in Prof Chen’s lab and the lead author of the study.

“Findings from this study suggest that the impact of the magnetic field needs to be considered in the clinical applications of focused ultrasound in brain drug delivery,” Prof Chen said.

In addition to brain drug delivery, cavitation is also used in several other therapeutic techniques, such as histotripsy, the use of cavitation to mechanically destroy regions of tissue, and sonothrombolysis, a therapy used after acute ischaemic stroke. The magnetic field’s damping effect on cavitation is expected to affect the treatment outcomes of other cavitation-mediated techniques when MRI-guided focused-ultrasound systems are used.

Source: Washington University in St. Louis

Journal information: Yang, Y., et al. (2021) Static Magnetic Fields Dampen Focused Ultrasound–mediated Blood-Brain Barrier Opening. Radiology. doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2021204441. 

Categories : Implants and Prostheses Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Carbon Fibre Electrodes Allow Unprecedented Neural Recording

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Image by Robina Weemeijer on Unsplash

A tiny, implantable carbon fibre electrode has the potential to provide a long-term brain-computer interface which can record electrical signals over lengthy periods of time.

The carbon fibre electrodes were developed at the University of Michigan and demonstrated in rats. The new research shows the promise of carbon fibre electrodes in recording electrical signals from the brain without damaging brain tissue. Directly implanting carbon fiber electrodes into the brain allows the capturing of bigger and more specific signals than current technologies.

This technology could lead to advances that could give amputees and those with spinal injuries control of advanced prosthetics, stimulate the sacral nerve to restore bladder control, stimulate the cervical vagus nerve to treat epilepsy and provide deep brain stimulation as a possible treatment for Parkinson’s.  

“There are interfaces out there that can be implanted directly into the brain but, for a variety of reasons, they only last from months to a few years,” said Elissa Welle, a recent PhD graduate from the U-M Department of Biomedical Engineering. “Any time you’re opening up the skull for a procedure involving the brain, it’s a big deal.”

Brain implants are typically made from silicon due to its ability to conduct electricity and its historic use in cleanroom technology. But silicon is not very biocompatible and leads to the formulation of scar tissue over long periods. Such electodes will eventually degrade and no longer capture brain signals, requiring removal.

Carbon fibres may be the answer to getting high-quality signals with an interface that lasts years, not months. And by laser cutting and sharpening carbon fibers into tiny, subcellular electrodes in the lab with the help of a small blowtorch, U-M engineers have harnessed the potential for excellent signal capture in a form the body is more likely to accept.

“After implantation, it sits inside the brain in a way that does not interfere with the surrounding blood vessels, because it’s smaller than those blood vessels,” Welle said. “They’ll move around and adjust to an object that small, rather than get torn as they would when encountering larger implants.”

Part of the electrode’s compatibility in brain tissue is down to smaller size, but its needle-like shape may also minimise compacting of any surrounding tissue. Larger carbon-based electrodes have been shown to actually encourage neural tissue to grow instead of degrading. The team is hopeful that similar potential for their carbon fibre electrodes will be revealed by further testing.

Carbon fibre electrodes in a previous study dramatically outperformed conventional silicon electrodes with 34% of electrodes recording a neuron signal compared to 3%. Laser cutting then improved this number to 71% at 9 weeks after implantation. Flame sharpening has now enabled these high performance probes to be implanted directly into the cerebral cortex, negating the need for a temporary insertion aid, or shuttle, as well as into the rat’s cervical vagus nerve.

It is relatively easy to insert electrodes into the brain. But the researchers have also taken on the more difficult task of inserting the sharpened carbon fibre electrodes into nerves, with micrometre diameters.

Those findings show that potential for these electrodes goes beyond prosthetic manipulation, according to Cindy Chestek, a U-M associate professor of biomedical engineering, and principal investigator of the The Cortical Neural Prosthetics Lab.

“Someone who is paralysed may have no control over things like their bladder, for example,” Prof Chestek said. “We may be able to utilise these smaller electrodes to stimulate and record signals from areas that can’t be reached by larger ones, maybe the neck or spinal cord, to help give patients some level of control.”

Source: University of Michigan

Categories : Hospitals Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Research Shows Surgical Simulation Training Improves Performance

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Success with independent surgical simulation training has made it the new normal for students at the Pan Am Clinic.

Traditionally, surgical resident training has been master–apprentice-type relationship, with gradually increasing responsibilities until the trainees can do procedures on their own. Given recent pressures in the health care system, including reduced operating room time, increased difficulty of procedures and working hour restrictions, there is less time for residents to learn using the traditional method.

Surgical simulation, a surprisingly old system, dates back nearly 2500 years, when they were first used to plan innovative procedures while maintaining patient safety. One of the first recorded instances of surgical simulation was the use of leaf and clay models in India around 600 BC to conceptualise nasal reconstruction with a forehead flap

In a recent study, researchers from the University of Manitoba and the Pan Am Clinic recently examined the effectiveness of a mixed reality simulator for the training of arthroscopy novices.

Study author Dr Samuel Larrivée said: “Sports surgeons at our institution noted anecdotally that junior residents had difficulty reaching competency in arthroscopic skills by the end of their three-month rotation, and were not as prepared when starting their senior rotation. There was a need to increase training opportunities outside of the operating room in order to prepare our residents for independent practice.”

Prior to obtaining the ArthroS™ simulator, the University of Manitoba Orthopedic Surgery program occasionally made use of options such as benchtop dry simulators, cadavers and an older generation simulator with active haptics. These largely complemented academic teaching sessions in small groups with some success, and were available for use by residents as needed. But, due to the low fidelity and difficult setup, few residents took advantage of it.

However, medical students readily took to the ArthroS simulator. Alisha Beaudoin, a co-author and medical student, attested to her experience using the ArthroS simulator in her early training. “I found this training to be very helpful during my surgery rotation. Many of my preceptors were impressed by my superior arthroscopic and laparoscopic skills. This training may allow students with an interest in surgery to be more prepared.

“Recently, many Canadian universities have moved to competency-based curriculums where residents must demonstrate competency prior to moving to the next defined practice level. The study noted that this is similar to the training available on VirtaMed ArthroS and that “a user enrolled in the mentoring program is progressed through various levels of training by meeting training targets, essentially providing a proficiency-based progression.”

This paper is the first in what the authors hope is a larger body of work on validating arthroscopy simulators for resident training. There are currently plans to repeat similar studies with the other modules (hip, shoulder, and ankle), with larger sample sizes, and at different levels of training.

Participants were split into three groups: simulator training only, mentor-based training, and a control. After  four weeks, surgical performance improved among both traditional and simulator-based training groups. The study concluded that “simulator training may provide enhanced skills to improve patient safety overall, as residents may become more skilled earlier in their training, leaving more time for the mentor to teach more advanced skills.” Dr Beaudoin further explains: “I believe that simulation training should be introduced into the standardised curriculum because I believe it offers a safe space to hone your skills and improve in a stress-free environment.”

On the strength of the results, the residency programme has made it a requirement in the curriculum that residents in their sports rotation complete the self-learning modules. Dr Larrivée believes this will help residents develop their triangulation skills and memorise the steps ahead of their first surgery, and to consolidate their knowledge.

Source: VirtaMed

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A Step to Towards Electrically Restoring Oral Sensation and Function

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In an effort towards restoring oral functionality lost to nerve or brain damage, researchers at Texas A&M University have determined the minimum electrical stimulation needed to provide sensation in various parts of the mouth.

Sensorimotor feedback loops involve the brain interpreting incoming signals from sensory nerves and then ordering motor nerves to execute a particular movement. Sensorimotor loops play a vital role in voluntary functions, like walking or holding an object, and involuntary movements, like sneezing or blinking.

Within the mouth, both sensory and motor nerves are richly supplied. In particular, sensorimotor nerves in the soft palate and tongue coordinate several intraoral movements related to swallowing, speech and respiration. Damage to either the sensory or motor nerve fibres due to neurotrauma or disease can therefore compromise these essential functions and worsening the quality of life for afflicted individuals.

Electrical nerve stimulation might help jumpstart the nerves into action, much like how a pacemaker can electrically stimulate nerves in the heart, causing the heart muscle to contract. Unlike a pacemaker however, the parameters of the electrical currents needed for proper stimulation of different parts of the mouth have not been investigated.

“Electrical stimulation can modulate nerve currents or action potentials, which are the mode of communication to and from the brain,” said Hangue Park, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “And so, electrical stimulation should be carefully applied, because if not, then it might cause undesirable effects, or it might not stimulate anything at all.”

To investigate the minimum stimulation currents needed, Park and his team place tiny metal electrodes in a standard dental retainer. These electrodes were positioned in subjects’ mouths to stimulate either their soft palate or the side and tip of the tongue, which are dense in sensory nerves. The researchers slowly changed the amplitude of the stimulation current, keeping the frequency fixed. Subjects reported when they began feeling a sensation and when the sensation was uncomfortable, and the same experiment was repeated with a higher frequency of current.

After compiling their data, the team determined the average perception and discomfort thresholds for the tongue and soft palate. In addition, they produced an equivalent circuit of the intraoral cavity to duplicate the electrical properties of that area. This circuit, the researchers said, can help to further study the effects of electrical stimulation offline without requiring human subjects.

The researchers noted that their next steps would be to electrically stimulate the intraoral region and investigate how these simulations change chewing, swallowing and other behaviours.

“Sensorimotor systems can be extremely vulnerable to damage due to neural defects, aging and neurodegenerative diseases,” Park said. “In this study, we have begun to lay the groundwork for electrically stimulating parts of the mouth that control involuntary and voluntary movements. Our work is a seminal study and it is important so that we can, in the near future, help people that face enormous challenges doing everyday tasks that we take for granted.”

Source: Texas A&M University

Journal information: Park, B., et al. (2021) Electrical Characterization of the Tongue and the Soft Palate using Lumped-Element Model for Intraoral Neuromodulation. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2021.3070867.

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New Machine Learning Tools Could Save Teeth

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Machine learning tools could help identify those at greatest risk for tooth loss and refer them for further dental assessment for early interventions to avert or delay the conditions.

The study by researchers at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine compared five different algorithms using various combinations of variables to screen for risk. The results showed those that factored medical characteristics and socioeconomic variables, including race, education, arthritis, and diabetes, outperformed algorithms that relied on dental clinical indicators alone.

“Our analysis showed that while all machine-learning models can be useful predictors of risk, those that incorporate socioeconomic variables can be especially powerful screening tools to identify those at heightened risk for tooth loss,” said study lead investigator Hawazin Elani, assistant professor of oral health policy and epidemiology at HSDM.

The approach could be used to screen people globally and in a variety of health care settings even by non-dental professionals, she added. This approach could be applied around the world, even allowing non-dental professionals to screen patients.

Tooth loss can affect quality of life, well-being, nutrition, and social interactions. It is also associated with dementia. If the earliest signs of dental disease are identified, then the process can be delayed or averted with prompt treatment. However, many people with dental disease may not see a dentist until the process is too far gone. This is where screening tools could help identify those at highest risk and refer them for further assessment, the team said.

For the study, the researchers used data on nearly 12 000 adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to design and test five machine-learning algorithms and assess their predictions for both complete and incremental tooth loss among adults based on socioeconomic, health, and medical characteristics.

A key point is that algorithms were designed to assess risk without a dental exam, though anyone at risk for tooth loss would still need one. The study’s findings point to the importance of socioeconomic factors.

“Our findings suggest that the machine-learning algorithm models incorporating socioeconomic characteristics were better at predicting tooth loss than those relying on routine clinical dental indicators alone,” Elani said. “This work highlights the importance of social determinants of health. Knowing the patient’s education level, employment status, and income is just as relevant for predicting tooth loss as assessing their clinical dental status.”

Low socioeconomic status populations have long been known to have greater rates of tooth loss, likely due to lack of regular access to dental care, among other reasons, the team said.

“As oral health professionals, we know how critical early identification and prompt care are in preventing tooth loss, and these new findings point to an important new tool in achieving that,” said Jane Barrow, associate dean for global and community health and executive director of the Initiative to Integrate Oral Health and Medicine at HSDM. “Dr. Elani and her research team shed new light on how we can most effectively target our prevention efforts and improve quality of life for our patients.”

Source: Harvard Medical School

Journal information: Hawazin W. Elani et al, Predictors of tooth loss: A machine learning approach, PLOS ONE (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252873

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India Tests Out Drones for Medical Deliveries

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An aviation firm has carried out the first tests in India of drone deliveries at long ranges, in a step towards one day delivering medicines as well as COVID vaccines to remote areas.

India, with a population of 1.3 billion people spread across some 3.2 million square kilometres is the world’s seventh-largest country by land mass. Experts say that widespread use of drones could be a game-changer for medical services in the South Asian nation’s hard-to-reach rural areas with often poor roads and lack of healthcare infrastructure.

Drones are a cost-effective alternative to road transport in difficult terrains. They can be used in the transport of blood from the blood bank to the place of surgery and that of specimens from hard-to-reach areas to the labs in nearby towns. They can deliver essential medicines like anti-venom for snake bite and dog bite and prevent deaths.

Throttle Aerospace Systems is among 20 organisations granted permits by the government since May to conduct experimental flights beyond the current limit of 450 metres.

Two drones were tested in the southern state of Karnataka: one that can carry up to one kilogramme for 20 kilometres for nearly an hour, and another that can lift two kilogrammes for 15 kilometres.

“Medicines was the payload here and… 2.5 kilometres were covered in seven minutes and it delivered the medicines at the designated point and the drone returned,” Throttle’s co-founder, Sebastian Anto, told AFP at the test site.

This month the Indian government also invited bids from drone operators to help set up a pilot project for the delivering of medical supplies as it seeks to bolster its flagging COVID vaccination drive.

Samiran Panda,  epidemiology chief of the Indian Council of Medical Research, told The Hindu daily newspaper that the technology could help innoculate priority groups in hard-to-reach places.

“We need smart vaccination instead of mass vaccination to stem an epidemic,” Panda told the newspaper last week.

However, India lags behind many other nations when it comes to drones both in terms of their uses and the regulatory framework.Under current regulations, they have to be flown in full view, or within 450 metres, of their operators on the ground.

In Germany, it is reported that researchers are testing drone prototypes that can track down disaster victims by their screams. In Australia, drones using artificial intelligence algorithms are being used to spot crocodiles and count koalas in rugged terrain.

“Drone technology would have a huge impact in those areas where emergency medicines and vaccines could be supplied,” co-founder of lobby group the Drone Federation of India, Vipul Singh, told AFP.

“Where it takes a few hours to travel 20-30 kilometres by road, whereas a drone can actually travel that distance in 10 to 15 minutes,” said Singh, also the co-founder of Bangalore-based Aarav Unmanned Systems.

Source: Medical Xpress

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‘Windscreen Wiper’ Tool for Laparoscopes Allows Uninterrupted View

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A Brigham Young University student has developed a ‘windscreen wiper’ tool for laparoscopes that continuously keeps the camera end clean.

The laparoscope, a slender rod with a camera tip, allows doctors to see inside a body during surgery. Laparoscopes have made surgery less invasive and easier for surgeons and patients, but the device does have a problematic drawback: it must be removed, cleaned, and reinserted multiple times during surgery.

Engineering graduate student Jacob Sheffield has developed a tiny origami-based device that serves as a miniature windshield wiper for laparoscope camera lenses. When installed, the device eliminates the need to remove and reinsert laparoscopes every five or so minutes during surgery, which would allow surgeons to focus on the patient without disruptions.

“It’s like driving the car in the rain,” Sheffield explained. “If you can focus on driving and not on reaching out the window to wipe off the windshield with your hand, you can keep your focus on what’s important.”

His technology, developed with mentoring from BYU professor Larry Howell in the Compliant Mechanisms Research Lab and help from ME undergrad Amanda Lytle, is called LaparoVision. The disposable mechanism snaps on to existing laparoscopes and features a one-piece curved wiper that conforms to the cylindrical walls of the medical tool. The wiper, which is so small it can rest on the end of a finger, is actuated by a trigger outside of the body.

The innovative concept was impressive enough to earn Sheffield the title of 2021 Student Innovator of the Year at BYU, an award which also provides kickstarter money to develop a project.

“It’s extremely helpful to get that funding through BYU awards programs and the feedback you get from judges is invaluable,” Sheffield said. “My advice for future applicants is even if you don’t win or get money out of it, use the deadline of the competitions to drive progress for your idea.”

For Sheffield, the idea came about when he was meeting with surgeons across the country on other medical technologies being tested in the CMR lab. The issue of laparoscope removal and cleaning kept coming up in their conversations. The tool is used in 5 million surgeries every year in the US alone, and in roughly 90% of those procedures, the device must be removed.

Sheffield said that, according to many surgeons and studies, every five to eight minutes the device has to be pulled out and the lens wiped clean. With operating rooms costing $62 a minute, those fairly regular removals prove costly and frustrating. However, even more importantly, withdrawal of the scope at a critical time can cause serious risks for the patient.

“There is a high correlation in keeping the scope clean, maintaining surgical focus and ensuring timely and safe patient outcomes,” Sheffield said. “But it’s not just about improving efficiency during surgery; every time you lose vision it could be a critical part in the surgery where you make an incision and get blood on the lens and you can’t see what’s going on.”

Sheffield is currently in talks to license the technology and has now formed a startup (Bloom Surgical) to bring the device to market. Currently he is focusing on showing that the device is reliable and sage, and working towards getting FDA clearance for the tool.

Source: Brigham Young University

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New Printable Biosensor Could Guide Surgery

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Surgeons may soon be able to pinpoint critical regions in tissues during surgery without interruption thanks to a new, 3D-printable biosensor.

Associate Professor Chi Hwan Lee created the biosensor, which enables both recording and imaging of tissues and organs during a surgical operation. Research on the biosensor was published in Nature Communications.

Prof Lee explained the benefits of such devices: “Simultaneous recording and imaging could be useful during heart surgery in localising critical regions and guiding surgical interventions such as a procedure for restoring normal heart rhythm.”

Existing methods to simultaneously record and image tissues and organs have proven challenging because other sensors used for recording typically interrupt the imaging process.

“To this end, we have developed an ultra-soft, thin and stretchable biosensor that is capable of seamlessly interfacing with the curvilinear surface of organs; for example the heart, even under large mechanical deformations, for example cardiac cycles,” Prof Lee said. “This unique feature enables the simultaneous recording and imaging, which allows us to accurately indicate the origin of disease conditions: in this example, real-time observations on the propagation of myocardial infarction in 3D.”

The biosensors are made of soft bio-inks and are rapid-prototyped to a custom-fit design, fitting a variety of sizes and shapes of an organ. The bio-inks used are softer than tissue, and can stretch without experiencing sensor degradation but also have reliable natural adhesion to the wet surface of organs without needing extra adhesives. The formulation and synthesis of the bio-inks was thanks to Kwan-Soo Lee’s research group in Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The researchers have produced a number of prototype biosensors using different shapes, sizes and configurations. Craig Goergen, the Leslie A Geddes Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, and his laboratory group have tested the prototypes in mice and pigs in vivo.

“Professor Goergen and his team were successfully able to identify the exact location of myocardial infarctions over time using the prototype biosensors,” Prof Lee said. “In addition to these tests, they also evaluated the biocompatibility and anti-biofouling properties of the biosensors, as well as the effects of the biosensors on cardiac function. They have shown no significant adverse effects.”

Source: Purdue University

Journal information: Kim, B., et al. (2021) Rapid custom prototyping of soft poroelastic biosensor for simultaneous epicardial recording and imaging. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23959-3.