Search for: "microparticles" - 17 articles found

Innovative Avenue of Treatment – Internal Radiotherapy for Locally Advanced Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer

In more than one in six patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the tumour is initially diagnosed at a non-metastatic primarily unresectable, locally advanced stage (LAPC). For these patients, a new internal radiation procedure, OncoSil™ brachytherapy, may become a treatment option – in Germany, around 858 patients could benefit from this innovation annually.

Article • Flow cytometry

Detecting and measuring nanoplastics in the blood stream

Plastics are a part of everyday life, and an increasingly concerning factor of global environmental pollution. They also have infiltrated our bodies as microparticles (MPs) and nanoparticles (NPs), found even in placentas supporting foetal life. And they are in our blood. Now, researchers in Spain have developed a new method to detect and measure nanoparticles in human peripheral blood that is…

News • New method

Time-released drug delivery could make vaccines last for months

Missing crucial doses of medicines and vaccines could become a thing of the past thanks to Rice University bioengineers’ technology for making time-released drugs.

News • Enhancing lung defense

An inhalable ‘SHIELD’ against Covid-19 and flu viruses

Researchers have developed an inhalable powder that could protect lungs and airways from invasion from the coronavirus or flu viruses by reinforcing the body’s own mucosal layer.

Osteoconductive PEEK biomaterial for injection molding

The specialty chemicals company Evonik and the Swiss plastics specialist Samaplast are combining their expertise in the development of an osteoconductive PEEK biomaterial for injection molding.

News • UV-C barrier against aerosols

An 'invisible wall' to keep out SARS-CoV-2

An invisible protective wall of UV-C light developed by researchers in Munich could reliably curb the spread of viruses and other pathogens in rooms while allowing total freedom of movement.

News • Kirigami

Stents can deliver drugs to the GI tract

Inspired by kirigami, the Japanese art of folding and cutting paper to create three-dimensional structures, MIT engineers and their collaborators have designed a new type of stent that could be used to deliver drugs to the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract, or other tubular organs in the body.

News • Nano science

Conductive hydrogel could replace brain tissue

Due to their tissue-like mechanical properties, hydrogels are being increasingly used for biomedical applications; a well-known example are soft contact lenses. These gel-like polymers consist of 90 percent water, are elastic and particularly biocompatible. Hydrogels that are also electrically conductive allow additional fields of application, for example in the transmission of electrical signals…

News • Biomaterial research

Wound-healing hydrogel to improve skin tissue repair

Researchers at Duke University and the University of California, Los Angeles, have developed a biomaterial that significantly reduces scar formation after wounding, leading to more effective skin healing. This new material, which quickly degrades once the wound has closed, demonstrates that activating an adaptive immune response can trigger regenerative wound healing, leaving behind stronger and…

News • Robotic innovation

Micro robot rolls deep into the body

A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart invented a tiny microrobot that resembles a white blood cell travelling through the circulatory system. It has the shape, the size and the moving capabilities of leukocytes and could perhaps be well on its way – in a rolling motion of course – to revolutionize the minimally invasive treatment of…

News • Acetone sensors

3D printing sensors for diabetes breath tests

The production of highly sensitive sensors is a complex process: it requires many different steps and the almost dust-free environment of special cleanrooms. A research team from Materials Science at Kiel University (CAU) and from Biomedical Engineering at the Technical University of Moldova has now developed a procedure to produce extremely sensitive and energy-efficient sensors using 3D…

News • Subdermal quantum tattoo

Nano-patch stores medical information under the skin

Every year, a lack of vaccination leads to about 1.5 million preventable deaths, primarily in developing nations. One factor that makes vaccination campaigns in those nations more difficult is that there is little infrastructure for storing medical records, so there’s often no easy way to determine who needs a particular vaccine. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)…

Article • Controlled and configured by light and magnets

Soft robots: Creating a true transformer

The movement of soft robots can be remotely controlled to lock them into position for as long as needed and later reconfigure them into new shapes. Developed by researchers at North Carolina State University and Elon University, the technique relies on light and magnetic fields. ‘We’re particularly excited about the reconfigurability,’ says Joe Tracy, a professor of materials science and…

News • Brain Injury and Disease

Researchers Identify How Inflammation Spreads Through the Brain After Injury

Researchers have identified a new mechanism by which inflammation can spread throughout the brain after injury. This mechanism may explain the widespread and long-lasting inflammation that occurs after traumatic brain injury, and may play a role in other neurodegenerative diseases.

The vascular bypass revolution

Coronary or peripheral bypasses are the most frequently performed vascular operations. Although one million patients per year and around the world, undergo this intervention, its failure rate reaches 50%, because of poor vessel healing, leading to vessel graft occlusion. To improve the outcome of bypasses, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) work together with medical doctors from…

Nanotechnology

Over the last five years the tiniest particles have attracted large attention in relation to the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Indeed, as in other medical disciplines, nanotechnology is advancing in cardiology despite as yet insufficient research on the extent of its effect and double blind studies to confirm findings

Here - and the far horizons

Dr Hanns-Joachim Weinmann, Diagnostics and Radiopharmaceuticals, Magnetic Resonance Imaging & X-Ray Research, Schering AG, examines what is feasible and what still lies only at a tantalising distance.