New heart simulator to improve treatment of cardiac diseases

From Politecnico di Milano 19/09/23 A mathematical and computational model of the human heart entirely developed at Politecnico di Milano and designed for studying coronary artery disease. This is the focus of research published in the prestigious journal Nature Scientific Reports, entitled ‘A comprehensive mathematical model for cardiac perfusion’. The project was born from collaboration […]
Implantable insulin mini-factory with living cells promises injection-free control of diabetes

From Massachusetts Institute of Technology 19/09/23 One promising approach to treating Type 1 diabetes is implanting pancreatic islet cells that can produce insulin when needed, which can free patients from giving themselves frequent insulin injections. However, one major obstacle to this approach is that once the cells are implanted, they eventually run out of oxygen […]
Plastic peril: The chemical in your tupperware disrupts pregnancy in mice

From University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 05/09/23 We are constantly exposed to phthalates in our environment through plastic products such as storage containers, medical devices, packages, fabrics, and toys. Specifically, di-isononyl phthalate is inevitably becoming a part of our lives. Unfortunately, the impact of DiNP on the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy is largely unknown. […]
Mindfulness gets spherical: The shape-shifting ball that mimics your breath

From University of Bath 01/09/23 A soft ball that ‘personifies’ breath, expanding and contracting in synchronicity with a person’s inhalations and exhalations, has been invented by a PhD student at the University of Bath in the UK. The ball is designed to support mental health, giving users a tangible representation of their breath to keep […]
Engineered bacteria can detect tumor DNA

From University of California – San Diego 28/08/23 Pushing into a new chapter of technologically advanced biological sensors, scientists from the University of California San Diego and their colleagues in Australia have engineered bacteria that can detect the presence of tumor DNA in a live organism. Their innovation, which detected cancer in the colons of […]
AI spots brain disorders by listening to someone talk

From Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences 25/08/23 A research team led by Prof. LI Hai from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) concluded their research in AI-powered language assessment for cognitive and motor disorders field in a series of paper recently. Acoustic and linguistic features in […]
Micrometres-thin battery charged by saline solution could power smart contact lenses

From Nanyang Technological University 25/08/23 Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a flexible battery as thin as a human cornea, which stores electricity when it is immersed in saline solution, and which could one day power smart contact lenses. Smart contact lenses are high-tech contact lenses capable of displaying visible information […]
AI predicts throat and stomach cancers from health records

From University of Michigan 23/08/23 In the United States and other western countries, a form of esophageal and stomach cancer has risen dramatically over the last five decades. Rates of esophageal adenocarcinoma, or EAC, and gastric cardia adenocarcinoma, or GCA, are both highly fatal. However, Joel Rubenstein, M.D., M.S., a research scientist at the Lieutenant […]
Building muscle in the lab

From ETH Zurich 21/08/23 ETH Zurich Professor Ori Bar-Nur and his team grow muscle cells in the laboratory. In this case, they are mouse cells, but the researchers are also interested in human and cow cells. Promising applications resonate with both: human muscle tissue cultured in the lab could be used in surgery, while human […]
Diagnosis of Parkinson’s voice condition from call audio

From Toyohashi University of Technology 20/08/23 Overview Assistant Professor Yuya Hosoda of the Center for IT-Based Education (CITE), Toyohashi University of Technology developed a method for estimating the pitch of vocal cord vibrations of humans from call audio. In this method, the pitch is estimated by integrating the feature quantities extracted from the amplitude and […]