Search Results - healthcare

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This invention provides a new strategy for nucleic acid delivery by using novel cross-linkable and surface-charge modifiable synthetic polymers. The use of the novel polymer system allows for robust nuclecid-polymer complexation, easy removal of cationic moieties of the polymer and self-crosslinking of the polymer in a single step, and stimuli-responsive release of the nucleic acid molecules in the cell.

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Ferroptosis is a well-defined cell death mechanism distinct from other regulated cell death phenotypes such as apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy. This invention provides novel ferroptosis inducer compounds that represent a new class of highly specific chemotherapeutic agents.

This invention provides structurally well-defined, three-dimensional bone tissue grafts produced from stacked demineralized bone paper (DBP), methods for treating a subject using such bone tissue grafts, methods for making DBP, and in vitro assay systems and methods for assaying the effect of an agent on bone development or health.

This invention provides economical, bio-interactive surfaces and surface treatment methods for selective capture of targeted epithelial cells or other cell types from cell mixtures or complex biological fluids. Preparation or fabrication of the engineered surfaces provided by this technology does not require the use of expensive and unstable biomolecular materials, and the resulting surfaces can distinguish different cell types or cells that express different levels of the same surface adhesion marker. Such engineered surfaces can be used as economical tools for assessment of cancer risk, cancer diagnosis, and tracking of the effectiveness of cancer treatments, among other potential applications.

This technology, developed by a team of polymer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, provides a versatile and simple method for producing highly resilient synthetic hydrogels with excellent mechanical properties comparable to the most efficient, naturally occurring elastic protein called resilin. The method involves the use of photo-initiated crosslinking reaction of hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers having reactive end-groups in the presence of a tetra-functional thiol cross-linker. The resultant resilient hydrogels possess network elements of resilin, including a uniform network structure, low crosslink density, and an absence of secondary structures within the crosslinked primary chains. These hydrogels are capable of undergoing significant reversible deformation without energy loss (?97% resilience) at varying water content and show negligible hysteresis across a broad range of strains up to 300%. The swelling capacity, stiffness and fracture toughness of the hydrogels can be easily tuned by controlling the volume fractions of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers to tailor the hydrogels to the specific needs of end-use applications. Current studies have focused on material elements common in extended wear contact lenses.

Tracking eye movement is integral for constructing virtual reality headsets, and in the healthcare sector, eye movement tracking is useful for diagnosing sleep disorders. Current iterations of commercial eye trackers mainly rely on visually tracking the wearer’s retina using head-mounted cameras. This approach suffers from many analytical limitations, in addition to the fact that the resulting headsets are heavy, cumbersome, and constricting.

 

Aside from cameras, another method to track eye movement is electrooculography (EoG), in which the electric pulses created by the seven extraocular muscles are detected by a skin-mounted electrode. While EoG is the most sensitive and error-free approach to track eye motion, a fully-integrated and portable EoG headset with five electrode leads is not known.

 

Here, Professors Trisha Andrew and Deepak Ganesan create a lightweight garment that can record EoG signals and, therefore, track the eye motions of the wearer. The PIs decorate a lightweight molded-foam sleeping mask with dry electrodes, and integrate a power source and processing circuit onto the headband of the sleep mask. This creates a fully-integrated and sensitive eye tracking system that can be used to create next-generation VR headsets and track eye movement in patients suffering from sleep disorders.

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