Industries
World's first hybrid closed loop system treats Type 1 diabetes
Medtronic has announced the U.S. launch of the MiniMed 670G system - the world's first Hybrid Closed Loop system for people with type 1 diabetes. Featuring the company's most advanced SmartGuard HCL technology and Guardian Sensor 3, it is the only insulin pump approved by the FDA that enables personalised and automated delivery of basal insulin, the background insulin needed to maintain stable blood sugar levels throughout the day and night.
Take another little piece of my heart
Detecting the source of errant electric signals in the heart that cause cardiac arrhythmias, as well as understanding what causes them, has been a notoriously difficult challenge for both physicians and researchers. This is because the heart is difficult to study, but researchers at Ohio State University have come up with a new technique that keeps myocardial tissue beating and alive in vitro long enough to study using video cameras.
Magnets and nanoparticles open and close gaps in blood vessels
The endothelial cells that line blood vessels are packed tightly to keep blood inside and flowing, but scientists at Rice University and their colleagues have discovered it may be possible to selectively open gaps in those barriers just enough to let large molecules through — and then close them again. Rice bioengineer Gang Bao and collaborators at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology reported using magnets to help ...
Personalised virtual heart for non-invasive heart diagnostics
EPFL mathematician Alfio Quarteroni and his team are building a virtual heart model based on personalised medical images that may one day help cardiologists and cardiac surgeons non-invasively diagnose pathological heart conditions. The team recently modelled and simulated the behaviour of a patient’s aortic valve.
Leukemia treatment outperforms standard chemotherapies
Researchers at ANU are working on a new treatment for an aggressive type of leukemia that outperforms standard chemotherapies. Lead researcher Dr Nadine Hein from The John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU said researchers have successfully treated highly aggressive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in mice using the new treatment.
Making use of robots to boost production
Power quality specialist REO UK has installed new robotic units into its production facilities to improve the accuracy of component and enclosure manufacturing. The new systems allow the company to maintain a consistently high standard of product, while also boosting production capacity in line with increasing demand for effective power quality equipment.
Autonomous charging station for oil and gas drones
The first delivery and installation of SkyX’s xStation charging station for its SkyOne drones has taken place. The xStation is designed to allow SkyOne drones to remotely recharge while monitoring long range infrastructure, then continue its mission. By installing multiple xStations along a route, SkyOne can monitor assets like oil and gas pipelines or railroad tracks that stretch hundreds – and even thousands – of kilometres.
Cancer cells communicate with others to boost survival
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that cancer cells appear to communicate to other cancer cells, activating an internal mechanism that boosts resistance to common chemotherapies and promotes tumour survival. The findings are published online in Science Signaling.
Electrical brain stimulation improves people's creativity
Scientists have found a way to improve creativity through brain stimulation, according to researchers at Queen Mary University of London and Goldsmiths University of London. They achieved this by temporarily suppressing a key part of the frontal brain called the DLPFC, which is involved in most of our thinking and reasoning. The results, published in the journal Scientific Reports, show that participants who received the interventi...
Cracking the brain's memory codes
In a pair of studies, scientists at the National Institutes of Health explored how the human brain stores and retrieves memories. One study suggests that the brain etches each memory into unique firing patterns of individual neurons. Meanwhile, the second study suggests that the brain replays memories faster than they are stored. The studies were led by Kareem Zaghloul, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon-researcher at the NIH's National Institute o...