The New York Times Magazine offers up a healthy dose of inspiration this weekend with the story of David Walmer, a renegade doctor who’s been saving lives in Haiti. When he realized a few years ago how cervical cancer was killing many of his patients, Walmer decided to get creative about solving the problem. Oddly enough, Walmart was part of the solution.
It’s not news that we can 3D print bones
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For centuries, humans have been using technology to make up for their shortcomings. People missing limbs got prosthetics. People with weak hearts got pacemakers. But, at a certain point, becoming a cyborg is less like fixing something broken than it is like gaining new powers.
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Cancer surgery is tough. Even with high-powered microscopes, surgeons have a very difficult time distinguishing cancer cells from healthy cells. But these new glasses developed by Washington University, St. Louis could change all that.
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A few years ago, a whole new crop of crazy medical devices started popping up—things like little robots that could crawl through your veins and clear blocked arteries. Scientists lauded the promise of ingestible electronics, but there was one big problem. How are we going to power these devices?
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Everybody lies to their doctors. We say that we drink less than we do. We tell her we quit smoking when we didn’t. But what if the doctor knew more about what goes into your mouth than you do?
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Cancer surgery is invariably difficult, in part, because doctors have always had a hard time determining exactly where the healthy tissue ends and the tumor begins. Not anymore. A new "intelligent knife" can actually sniff out the cancer cells during an operation and keep the doctor on track.
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Have you ever thought about the possibilities of bendable, stretchable electronics? They’re amazing. From a circuit attached to your brain to a pacemaker that sticks to your heart, these are the stuff that medical sci-fi dreams are made of.
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Spray-on solutions have found a place in green technology and even in transmitting radio waves, and they’re no strangers to medical research, either. Researchers at the British Heart Foundation are working on a bioelectric spray composed of heart cells to help mend that most vital of organs. Because the cells need to be extremely thin to form a sheet of heart tissue, they are passed through a conductive needle that charges them with up to 30,000 volts. Exposing the cells to an electric field turns the solution into small droplets, which in turn form the cardiac sheet. The scientists can also add other types of cells to create “three-dimensional” tissue, which can be grafted onto injured hearts or sprayed onto scar tissue to help patients’ tickers pump more strongly. As is so often the case, the next step will be testing the technology on animals, and the project’s ultimate goal is to use this spray-on solution rather than making patients wait for donor hearts.
Filed under: Science
Researchers develop cell spray to repair hearts, healthy dose of electricity included originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 22:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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