This week, the Medica and Compamed 2024 trade fairs offer an enormous variety of innovations and exciting programme formats with a host of highlights, innovations and top-class speakers.
Skills shortages and digitalization, trends in cardiology and oncology, future prospects in laboratory medicine, and healthy aging – these pressing topics are at the forefront of discussions at this year’s Medica Labmed Forum.
Diagnosis and monitoring medical conditions, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and infections: In this opinion article, Alix Joseph (Linxens) explores the potential of sweat analysis.
Researchers are proposing a new device that uses blood to generate electricity and measure its conductivity, opening doors to medical care in any location.
A research group established a microfluidic control technology that can be applied to small blood testing devices and consequently developed a novel integrated immunoassay device.
Two companies are combining their unique expertise to develop intelligent e-skin patches to “self-sense” cardiac events in patients. The flexible patch platform will deliver a comprehensive understanding of both electrical and mechanical heart activities and has the potential to enable cardiologists to better monitor their patients.
Artificial cells to combat cancer: Research groups are working to create synthetic micro-organisms capable of detecting the presence of the disease and delivering anti-cancer therapies.
With the help of AI, a team at Caltech has designed a new type of catheter tube that impedes the upstream mobility of bacteria, without the need for antibiotics or chemical antimicrobial methods.
Faster, more accurate and cost-effective testing: Experts outline the beginnings and evolution of “lab-on-a-chip” technology, and its benefits for advanced and next-gen operational platforms.
Researchers in Spain have developed a system using patient cells which represents the first 3D muscle model capable of replicating the damage caused by Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).
Basque researchers propose a bioelectronic device consisting of gold electrodes coated with a smart polymer capable of capturing and releasing cells in a non-invasive, controllable way.
Half as thick as a human hair: Researchers at TU Munich have developed the world's first microrobot capable of navigating within groups of cells and stimulating individual cells.
A new device that combines microfluidics on paper, electrochemical transduction and immunoassays on magnetic nanoparticles is useful for easy and rapid diagnosis of lung diseases.
Under the impulse of the European Commission, the in vitro diagnostic industry is developing emerging technologies to implement sustainable practices in medical laboratories. As sustainability has been a growing priority of the European Union (EU) in the last decade, ‘the medical technology sector, particularly the IVD sector, must comply with European legislation in this field like all other…
Global healthcare consumes millions of tonnes of single use plastic every year. A team at the University of Birmingham is taking on this sustainability challenge.
Researchers have developed a so-called “heart attack on a chip”, which could one day serve as a testbed to develop new heart drugs and even personalized medicines.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of these single-use diagnostics, or point-of-care tests has exploded. This is having major environmental consequences, experts point out.
With the rise of syndrome-style infections, co-infections and the current antimicrobial resistance challenges, the need for multiplexed diagnostics is now more important than ever.
German researchers present a novel method for testing chemical agents that could help in the development of drugs against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.
The prototype device combines eRapid and SHERLOCK technologies into a single, postcard-sized system that can simultaneously detect the presence of both SARS-CoV-2 RNA and antibodies in a patient’s saliva.
Cardiomyopathy is not a uniform disease. Rather, individual genetic defects lead to heart failure in different ways, an international consortium reports.
Researchers have developed a novel way to fabricate diagnostic devices using paper-based microfluidics that can be rapidly prototyped and scaled for manufacturing.
A wireless, bioelectronic pacifier could eliminate the need for invasive, twice-daily blood draws to monitor babies’ electrolytes in Newborn Intensive Care Units or NICUs.
Researchers developed a new microfluidic chip with broad applications for detecting viruses, pathogens, bacteria and other biomarkers in liquid samples.
Microfluidic chip inflates and deflates balloons in a sleeve to promote fluid flow in the lymphatic system.
Accurate home testing could be used for a wider range of illnesses, as new research shows the capability of smartphone-powered tests for Dengue Fever.
A platform for studying how the human immune system responds to hepatitis C infection by combining microfluidic technology with liver organoids could speed the hunt for a vaccine.
More than 15 billion batteries are sent to landfill sites every year – technology that converts glucose and oxygen into electricity has the potential to reduce this waste and serve as a sustainable alternative power source for medical devices.
Test could measure patient immunity against multiple COVID-19 variants such as Omicron and Delta at once and inform which synthetic monoclonal antibody to use for treatments.
The joint research team of Prof. Hongsoo Choi (DGIST) & Prof. Sung Won Kim (Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital), developed an hNTSC-based microrobot for minimally invasive delivery into the brain tissue via the intranasal pathway.
Considerable advances in point-of-care testing (POCT) devices are emerging from lab-on-a-chip platforms, innovations in smartphone-based technology and wearable technology. Cloud-based deep learning systems herald a future revolution.
The Corona pandemic has a major impact on all areas of life. Nearly everyone is affected in some way – in their health, in their jobs, in their entire lives. But there are also notable bright spots. Chief among these effects is the rapid development of vaccines, test kits and, in the future, medicines that are making a significant contribution to overcoming the crisis. Microfluidic components…
A research team led by Professor Lim Chwee Teck from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Department of Biomedical Engineering and Institute for Health Innovation & Technology (iHealthtech), in collaboration with clinical partners from Singapore General Hospital, has developed a smart wearable sensor that can conduct real-time, point-of-care assessment of chronic wounds wirelessly…
A research team led by scientists in the labs of Jennifer Doudna, David Savage and Patrick Hsu at the University of California, Berkeley, is aiming to develop a rapid Covid-19 diagnostic test that is much faster and easier to deploy than qRT-PCR. It has now combined two different types of CRISPR enzymes to create an assay that can detect small amounts of viral RNA in less than an hour. Doudna…
A team of engineers and clinicians has developed an ultra-thin, inflatable device that can be used to treat the most severe forms of pain without the need for invasive surgery. The device, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, uses a combination of soft robotic fabrication techniques, ultra-thin electronics and microfluidics.
The Covid-19 pandemic made it clear technological innovations were urgently needed to detect, treat, and prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A year and a half into this epidemic, waves of successive outbreaks and the dire need for new medical solutions — especially testing — continue to exist. In the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, researchers from the University of Florida and…
A collaboration spanning four research labs and hundreds of miles has used the organ-on-a-chip (Organ Chip) technology from the Wyss institute at Harvard Univesity to identify the antimalarial drug amodiaquine as a potent inhibitor of infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The Organ Chip-based drug testing ecosystem established by the collaboration greatly streamlines the…
Now Available: The Fluxergy Analyzer System is a testing platform designed for sample-to-answer point-of-care testing, enabling clinicians to cost-effectively conduct molecular in vitro diagnostic tests. The analyzer system is designed to deliver test results within one hour. This device is solely intended to be used by healthcare professionals.
In many ways, our brain and our digestive tract are deeply connected. Feeling nervous may lead to physical pain in the stomach, while hunger signals from the gut make us feel irritable. Recent studies have even suggested that the bacteria living in our gut can influence some neurological diseases. Modeling these complex interactions in animals such as mice is difficult to do, because their…
Researchers at the University of Arizona are developing a Covid-19 testing method that uses a smartphone microscope to analyze saliva samples and deliver results in about 10 minutes. The research team, led by biomedical engineering professor Jeong-Yeol Yoon, aims to combine the speed of existing nasal swab antigen tests with the high accuracy of nasal swab PCR, or polymerase chain reaction,…
For the first time in the history of MEDICA, the world-leading medical trade fair, and the industry’s number one platform for the suppliers of the medical technology industry, COMPAMED, held from 16 to 19 November 2020, took place entirely online due to the pandemic - but still won over their audiences due to their high degree of international resonance in this format too, as virtual.MEDICA and…
For the first time in their history, the world-leading medical trade fair MEDICA and the international number one event for the medical manufacturing supply market, COMPAMED, will be held entirely online as virtual.MEDICA and virtual.COMPAMED from Monday, with around 1,400 exhibitors hailing from 56 countries. Throughout the four days of the trade fair (16 – 19 November 2020), international…
Scientists at EPFL are using technology to better understand how coronavirus causes blood clots in some patients. They have developed a simplified model of a lung that lets them observe, for the first time, how the virus attacks the cells lining blood vessels.
As COVID-19 continues to spread, bottlenecks in supplies and laboratory personnel have led to long waiting times for results in some areas. In a new study, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign researchers have demonstrated a prototype of a rapid COVID-19 molecular test and a simple-to-use, portable instrument for reading the results with a smartphone in 30 minutes, which could enable…
Biomedical engineering researchers at Texas A&M University designed a medical device that mimics blood vessels to design and monitor drugs for patients with clotting disorders. This approach could be especially beneficial for pediatric patients. Unlike what a biology textbook may show, blood vessels are not straight cylinders. They are tortuous, meaning they have complex curves, spirals and…
Researchers at Hokkaido University have succeeded in detecting anti-avian influenza virus antibody in blood serum within 20 minutes, using a portable analyzer they have developed to conduct rapid on-site bio tests. If a suitable reagent is developed, this technology could be used to detect antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of COVID-19.
Unfortunately, cancers that occur in the back of the mouth and upper throat are often not diagnosed until they become advanced, partly because their location makes them difficult to see during routine clinical exams. A report in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics describes the use of acoustofluidics, a new non-invasive method that analyzes saliva for the presence of human papilloma virus…
A team of researchers has developed a novel technology that could sensitively and accurately detect and classify cancer cells, as well as determine the disease aggressiveness from the least invasive biopsies. With this new technology called STAMP (Sequence-Topology Assembly for Multiplexed Profiling), comprehensive disease information can be obtained faster, at a much earlier stage of the…
A little bit of norovirus – the highly infectious microbe that causes about 20 million cases of food poisoning in the United States each year – goes a long way. Just 10 particles of the virus can cause illness in humans. A team of University of Arizona researchers has created a simple, portable and inexpensive method for detecting extremely low levels of norovirus. Jeong-Yeol Yoon, a…
In a symposium on September 9, 2019, the School for Translational Medicine and Biomedical Entrepreneurship (sitem-insel School) in Bern, Switzerland, provides an overview about current trends in artificial intelligence (AI) in medical imaging. From 8.30 to 17.00, participants in sitem-insel, Freiburgstraße, Bern will learn about the principles of AI as well as innovative applications in the…
Analytically sensitive and specific detection of pharmaceuticals or metabolites in bodily fluids, as well as fast and reliable detection of human pathogens, are major challenges for instrument-based analytics in medical diagnostics. Over the past few years the combination of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and microfluidic devices (Lab-on-a-Chip) has emerged as a perfectly suited…
The team of the Heinz Nixdorf Chair of Biomedical Electronics at the Technical University of Munich focuses on innovative diagnostic tools to accelerate the development towards personalized medicine. Therapies tailored to the individual patient – this is the future not only of oncology but of many medical disciplines. “At this point, however,” concedes Professor Dr Oliver Hayden,…
To simulate the blood circulation and the organs of animals or humans, engineers from Fraunhofer in Dresden have developed a so-called "multi-organ chip". This microsystem from the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS Dresden has now received an "EARTO Innovation Award" in Brussels. The "lab-on-a-chip" will help industry to develop new drugs and…
Lab-on-a-chip devices harness electrical signals to measure glucose, discern blood type and detect viruses or cancer. But biological samples need hafnium oxide for protection from electric fields.
Test results are denoted by a colour change and could be further analysed by a smartphone app, making it attractive as a point-of-care diagnostic device.
While the role of the laboratory in disease diagnosis and management has expanded in recent years, causing an overwhelming rise in testing demands, the availability of skilled technologists and specialists has been diminishing. To meet the needs of an overworked and increasingly generalized workforce, today’s products not only must deliver more clinical data than ever before, but also must be…
The need to ensure that laboratory medicine can meet the future challenges of a rapidly changing healthcare environment sits at the core of an innovative strategic conference for this sector. The agenda of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Strategic Conference in Mannheim (18-19 June) highlighted the challenges, and also outlined areas of discussion to…
Mologic Ltd, which develops powerful, personalised diagnostics to improve the lives of patients, and Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics (Fraunhofer CAP), a world-leading centre in the field of applied laser research and development, announced they are working together to develop a rapid, point-of-care test to immediately diagnose bacterial urinary tract infections (UTIs) and any associated…
As cancer grows, it evolves. Individual cells become more aggressive and break away to flow through the body and spread to distant areas. What if there were a way to find those early aggressors? How are they different from the rest of the cells? And more importantly: Is there a way to stop them before they spread?
With MEDICA 2017 drawing ever nearer, Joachim Schäfer, Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, sets the stage with the following statement:
What do Casey Kasem, Christopher Reeve and Muhammad Ali have in common? They all died of sepsis: a rapid, potentially deadly reaction that affects millions each year.
‘Lab medicine connects’ is the congress theme of the German Congress of Laboratory Medicine and reflects the fact that laboratory medicine is an interdisciplinary subject like no other and connects those who are involved in medicine across disciplines. It works almost imperceptibly in the background, hardly noticed by patients. European Hospital spoke with this year’s Congress President,…
Cancer thrives when mutated cells undergo frequent division. Most anti-cancer drugs work by inserting themselves in between the DNA base pairs that encode our genetic information. This process is known as intercalation, and it can result in subtle changes to the DNA molecule’s geometric shape or tertiary structure. These structural changes interfere with the DNA’s transcription and a cell’s…
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology research center in Singapore have developed a new microfluidic device that tests the effects of electric fields on cancer cells. They observed that a range of low-intensity, middle-frequency electric fields effectively stopped breast and lung cancer cells from growing and spreading, while having no adverse effect on neighboring healthy cells.
Insulin deficiency and hyperglycemia are two well-known culprits behind diabetes, both of which are reflected in blood glucose concentrations. Now, researchers are working to create ultrasensitive lab-on-a-chip devices to quickly measure glucose concentrations with the goal of developing device for early diagnosis and prevent of diabetes.
Identifying a blood disorder may be as easy as running a blood sample from a finger prick under a smartphone. That is the concept behind a new biomedical device being developed by Kansas State University researchers.
It hasn’t happened yet, but the laboratory testing industry in the United States is bracing up for a day when venous blood draws may become more of the exception than the rule. Report: Cynthia E. Keen
A team of researchers from Brown University, ETH Zurich, the Universita da Svizzera Italiana (USI) and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) is using America’s most powerful supercomputer to help understand and fight diseases affecting some of the body’s smallest building blocks.
Northwestern University scientists have developed the first liquid nanoscale laser. And it’s tunable in real time, meaning you can quickly and simply produce different colors, a unique and useful feature. The laser technology could lead to practical applications, such as a new form of a “lab on a chip” for medical diagnostics.
Philips Minicare delivers rule-in/rule-out readings for heart attacks in 10 minutes. It takes a lot of hard work to make things easy. Biomedical experts at Royal Philips have spent more than 10 years developing a simple test for the emergency department that, in less than 10 minutes, may indicate whether a patient suffering chest pains is having a heart attack.
A new technology that will dramatically enhance investigations of epigenomes, the machinery that turns on and off genes and a very prominent field of study in diseases such as stem cell differentiation, inflammation and cancer, is reported in the research journal Nature Methods.
Researchers at the University of Toronto design diagnostic chip to reduce testing time from days to one hour, allowing doctors to pick the right antibiotic the first time.
A new "lab-on-a-disc" technology developed by an EU project research team can diagnose malaria and other febrile infectious diseases simultaneously in just an hour - allowing faster point-of-care treatment and precise drugs administration that could save thousands of lives.
This April, in San Jose, California, the portable lab took central stage at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry’s (AACC) annual forum for emerging clinical diagnostic technologies – a most appropriate topic for the Silicon Valley venue where so many world-changing computer and communications innovations have been born.
Medical technologies have maintained a leading position in European patent registrations for 15 years.
Frost & Sullivan is carefully tracking the transforming global point-of-care testing (POCT) market, offering latest information on key opportunities and critical unmet needs by region
Improvements in microfluidics and detection technologies are beginning to expand the range of point-of-care diagnostics beyond simple blood chemistry tests to sophisticated immuno-assays and molecular diagnostics. Though yet to see much adoption in European hospitals, these point-of-care (POC) diagnostics are coming into use in the USA, initially in emergency rooms and ICUs where fast results are…
Detection of circulating and disseminated tumour cells in blood is a promising method to diagnose cancer dissemination, or to follow up cancer patients during therapy. Today’s methods and involve time-consuming (more than a day) sample processing and cell isolation steps -- all labour intensive and expensive. A lab-on-chip that could integrate those processing steps would enable faster,…
t the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference (EMBC) in Buenos Aires (Argentina), imec and its project partners announce the launch of the European Seventh Framework Project MIRACLE. The MIRACLE project aims at developing an operational lab-on-chip for the isolation and detection of circulating and disseminated tumor cells (CTCs and DTCs) in blood. The new lab-on-chip is an essential step…
Full automation has now become the gold standard for clinical laboratories. Without hospital microbiology labs, which according to the Centres for Disease Control deal with 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths annually in the US alone, the growing threat of community-acquired and nosocomial infections could prove insuperable.
The mp6 micropump from Bartels is now available for use in medical applications. Micropumps transporting the tiniest amounts of gases or liquids can be considered the heart of microfluidics.
Researchers funded by the European Union have devised OptoLabCard, a system that prepares samples and performs DNA tests on bacteria in a portable, easily used, cost-effective lab-on-a-chip.
Engineers from the University of Michigan are seeking to develop a "lab-on-a-chip" kit that people can assemble on their own. It could bring a new generation of instant home tests checking out for illnesses, food contaminants and toxic gases.
Due to economic pressure, laboratories increasingly consolidate and automate procedures. Further cost reductions could come about through miniaturisation and multi-parameter tests.