Kuwait Info.

Blood clots made visible by nanoparticles

Blood clots Every year, millions of people come into emergency rooms complaining of chest pains, yet those pains are only sometimes due to heart attacks. Unfortunately in many of those cases, the only way to be sure of what’s going on is to admit the patient for an overnight stay, and administer time-consuming and costly tests. Now, however, a new procedure could reveal the presence and location...

Firefly protein lights pathway to improved detection of blood clots

Blood Clots Firefly proteins could provide an agent for the generation of near-infrared light, which in turn could help to improve the detection of blood clots. Researchers from Connecticut College have been studying luciferase, the enzyme that makes fireflies glow, hoping to develop a new medical imaging agent to improve the monitoring of treatment with heparin, a blood thinner taken to prevent blood...

Inkjet Printers Inspire Scientists to Make Skin

Fake Skin Ink-jet printing technology has inspired scientists to look for ways to build sheets of skin that could one day be used for grafts in burn victims, experts said Sunday. One technique involves a portable bioprinter that could be carried to wounded soldiers on the battlefield where it would scan the injury, take cells from the patient and print a section of compatible skin. Another uses a three-dimensional...

Siemens Mobile Device Warns of Oncoming Asthma Attacks

Asthma Attacks Engineers at Siemens have developed a mobile phone sized device that is capable of detecting nitric oxide (NO), an oncoming asthma attack marker, at parts per billion scale. Once the device makes it to the consumer market, asthma patients will be able to take preemptive action and raise their drug dosage levels when an attack looks impending. The new sensor can detect increases in NO...

UQ mathematicians design bone implants for the future

A team of mathematicians from The University of Queensland has helped design a prototype for a new generation of bone implants that could potentially reduce surgery and rehabilitation times, as well as provide a solution for patients for whom current orthopaedic implants are not suitable. Using a mathematical approach called “topology optimisation” – a method that optimises the layout...

PneumoniaCheck to Help Improve Pneumonia Test Sample Collection

PneumoniaCheck A team of mechanical engineering and bioengineering graduate students at Georgia Tech has developed an innovative device for capturing aerosols originating in the lungs. The common problem in diagnosing pneumonia is that during collection, the sample often gets contaminated by oral bacteria. The PneumoniaCheck takes advantage of air currents to separate particles coming from the lungs...

Implant Uses A Microchip Embedded in the Spine To Edit Out Chronic Pain

Researchers in Sydney have come up with a fix for chronic pain that’s not really a fix at all: a smart chip that, when embedded in the spine, intercepts and blocks pain messages en route to the brain. The smart chip is embedded in the spine or somewhere else between the brain and the source of chronic pain. The chip itself is housed in a biocompatible casing that is smaller than the head of a match....

Daily Aspirin Can Reduce Your Chances of Dying From Cancer Up to 60%

Daily Aspirin Can Reduce Your Chances of Dying From Cancer Up to 60% Researchers have found a drug that’s unexpectedly effective at reducing one’s chances of dying from many common forms of cancer, in some cases lessening fatalities up to 60%. It’s a small, long term daily dose of aspirin. In a new report, stemming from eight long term studies including some 25,000 patients, British...

Microthreads Enhanced With Human Cells Help Mice Grow New Muscle

Future stitches could be made out of your own muscle cells, ensuring proper re-growth of injured muscle tissues. Researchers in Massachusetts are implanting injured mice with microthreads coated with human muscle cells, reports Technology Review. The threads are made of the same proteins the human body uses to heal wounds, and when seeded with muscle cells, they act as a scaffold for the construction...

Mutant mosquitoes fight dengue in Cayman Islands

LONDON – Scientists have released genetically modified mosquitoes in an experiment to fight dengue fever in the Cayman Islands, British experts said Thursday. It is the first time genetically altered mosquitoes have been set loose in the wild, after years of laboratory experiments and hypothetical calculations. But while scientists believe the trial could lead to a breakthrough in stopping the disease,...