The smartphone-turned-into-medical-device is handheld and can continuously monitor a patient’s glucose level, reports ScienceDaily. The device automates much of the work to maintain safe blood sugar levels in diabetics, according to the researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where the device was created.

The first outpatient, Justin Wood, started his trial in April and says that “the device automates a lot of the tracking and monitoring I do now.” Before the trial started, he used an insulin pump but had to prick his finger five times a day to check his blood sugar level. The device should reduce that need to no more than two times per day. The machine is “a step forward in technology that could change my view and outlook on life,” he says.

Before the trial, Wood had to precisely estimate his food consumption, particularly with carbohydrates, to help properly adjust his insulin supply. But the device automatically read and balanced his blood sugar level. At mealtimes, he entered what he ate to help balance his blood sugar more quickly.

“The operating interface was very slick and very fast,” he says. “The extra second or two you save pressing buttons adds up when you have to do it every day.”

Outpatient testing will continue through 2013 at the University of Virginia and three other locations. Researchers plan to enroll 120 patients in the trial.

Source: “Artificial Pancreas Gets First U.S. Outpatient Test,” ScienceDaily, 5/14/12
Image by Mbbradford, used under Fair Use: Reporting.

A team of researchers built the nanoparticles from a polymer coated with polyethylene glycol, commonly used to deliver drugs within the body because it is nontoxic, writes Infection Control Today. The polymer also is known for its ability to travel through the bloodstream without being detected by the immune system.

An advantage that the nanoparticles have is that they can switch their charge depending on the environment. Previously used nanoparticles were designed to have a positive charge, which is attracted to bacteria’s negatively charged cell walls. However, the body’s immune system tends to clear positively charged nanoparticles from the body before they encounter the bacteria.

Because the new nanoparticles can switch charges, they move in the bloodstream with a negative charge. But when they reach the infection site, they change to a positive charge, allowing them to bind to the bacteria and release the drug.

The environment surrounding bacteria is slightly acidic. Often, antibiotics lose their effectiveness as acidity increases, but the scientists found that their antibiotics carried by the nanoparticles kept their potency better than traditional antibiotics.

The antibiotics release their drug payload over a one- to two-day period. “You don’t want just a short burst of drug because the bacteria can recover once the drug is gone,” says Aleks Radovic-Moreno, an MIT graduate student and one of the researchers, who was the lead author of a paper describing the nanoparticles in the journal, ACS Nano. “You want an extended release of drug so that bacteria are constantly being hit with high quantities of drug until they’ve been eradicated.”

Further research will continue, but the researchers hope that the high doses that can be delivered by the nanoparticles will help overcome bacterial resistance. “When bacteria are drug resistant, it doesn’t mean they stop responding, it means they respond but only at higher concentrations. And the reason you can’t achieve these clinically is because antibiotics are sometimes toxic, or they don’t stay at that site of infection long enough,” Radovic-Moreno says.

Source: “Engineers Design Nanoparticles that Deliver High Doses of Antibiotics Directly to Bacteria,” Infection Control Today, 5/4/12
Image by NIAID/RML, used under Fair Use: Reporting.

Researchers say that the advantages of implanted user interfaces over mobile and wearable user interface (UI) devices include being invisible, impervious to the weather, and never being left behind or forgotten, reports Ken Terry of InformationWeek. The researchers have developed a “powering mat” that recharges the implanted medical device when it is placed on top of the skin.

Using a cadaver, the researchers showed that one can communicate with a small UI device implanted under the skin of an arm. The device could provide sensory output, such as vibrations or sounds, alerting a patient with a pacemaker that the device’s battery is nearly discharged. The scientists also tested pressure and light sensors for entering information.

Current implanted medical devices can only perform tasks that they were programmed to do. However, those with an implanted UI device could support a wide range of applications and tasks, the researchers say. For example, if a pacemaker malfunctions, the implanted UI could reprogram it.

“But that doesn’t mean the person is entirely in control,” says one of the researchers, Christian Holz of the University of Potsdam in Germany. “A lot of these malfunctioning pacemakers can be adjusted by reprogramming them. But so far, there’s no option for anyone but the physician to do it.”

Despite security concerns, the researchers also tested Bluetooth transmissions that could send signals to a care manager or physician. The scientists learned that the data transmissions were hardly affected by the skin covering their UI device.

The researchers have more tests to be conducted before the device can be widely used. For example, they must assess the infection risks of implanted UI devices. Also, it is not clear how patients would react to the devices implanted under their skin.

Source: “Implanted User Interface Gives Patients New Options,” InformationWeek, 5/2/12
Image by KVDP, used by Fair Use: Reporting.

Jyongsik Jang, a polymer scientist at Seoul National Laboratory, says the sensor can detect nerve gas at concentrations as low as 10 parts per trillion, reports Katherine Bourzac of Chemical & Engineering News. With further development, the flexible sensor could mean that it could be worn by those needing to detect chemical weapons, the scientists hope.

The key to the sensor’s effectiveness is its increased surface area caused by the nanostructures. Bourzac explains the manufacturing process:

Jang’s sensors use the inexpensive conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene). When chemists add hydroxyl groups to PEDOT’s sidechains, the polymer can interact with organophosphates via hydrogen bonds. This interaction changes the polymer’s electrical resistance, which simple electronics can easily measure. The more surface area a PEDOT sensor has to interact with gases in the environment, the stronger the response, Jang’s team reasoned. Based on that idea, they wanted to make hydroxylated PEDOT nanostructures to maximize surface area, and in turn produce ultrasensitive sensors.

The manufacturing process starts by electrospinning mats of the polymer to make the nanotubes. Scientists then use vapor to coat the tubes’ surfaces with nanosized nodules. The coating doubles the surface area. Scientists make resistors out of mats of these tubes and place them between two wires on a plastic sheet to give the sensing device flexibility.

To test the sensors, the researchers used dimethyl methylphosphonate, a standard gas used as a stand-in for the nerve gas, sarin. The tubes coated with nanorods performed the best, measuring changes in resistance at concentrations as low as 10 parts per trillion. This ability at detection is two to three orders of magnitude more sensitive than previously reported sensors, Jang says.

Currently, soldiers and police use mass spectroscopy-based devices to detect organophosphates, a group of chemicals that include sarin. Jang’s sensor would be less expensive, more sensitive, and lighter, he says. His team is now developing ways to make the device, with its power source and all other necessary parts, wearable.

One advantage of these sensors is that they can be used continuously because the gas molecules don’t stay bound to the polymer for long, freeing up its detection capacity, says Paul Rhodes, a team manager at the chemical-sensor company, Nanosense.

Source: “A Flexible Nerve-Gas Sensor,” Chemical & Engineering News, 5/9/12
Image by BasilioC, used under Fair Use: Reporting.

The study conducted by the Ecology Center, based in Ann Arbor, MI, tested 90 garden hoses, 53 gloves, 13 kneeling pads, and 23 garden tools currently available on the market. All of the PVC garden hoses contained phthalates, a chemical used to soften plastics, which some researchers say are linked to birth defects and breast cancer, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The research center also found high amounts of lead and BPA in the water of the new hoses after sitting outside in the sun for a few days. Lead can cause impaired learning in children, and some scientists think BPA can cause harm to the reproductive and nervous systems.

“Even if you are an organic gardener, doing everything you can to avoid pesticides and fertilizers, you still may be introducing hazardous substances into your soil by using these products,” says Jeff Gearhart, Research Director at the Ecology Center. He says that there are lead-free hoses available, and that it is a good idea to let hoses run before using them to water plants, and to store them in the shade to prevent the sun from heating the hoses and releasing PVC chemicals into the water.

There were critics of the study. “Phthalates have never been shown to be a problem in garden hoses,” says Allen Blakey, spokesman for the Alexandria, VA-based Vinyl Institute, which represents manufacturers of PVC resin, the basic building block for some products, including many garden hoses. “Garden hoses are not made specifically for drinking water. Some people do that, but they don’t drink that hot water that’s been roasting in the sunlight. The report lacks common sense.”

The Ecology Center study also found that 30% of all products tested contained more than 100 ppm lead. That level is the Consumer Product Safety Commission standard for lead in children’s products. Water sampled from one hose contained 0.280 mg/l (ppm) lead. That amount is 18 times higher than the federal drinking water standard of 0.015 mg/l.

BPA levels of 2.3 ppm were found in the hose water, the center reported. That level is 20 times higher than the 0.1 ppm safe drinking water level used by the National Science Foundation to verify that consumers are not being exposed to levels of a chemical that exceed regulated levels, the center said.

Also, the phthalate DEHP was found at 0.025 ppm in hose water. That amount is four times higher than federal drinking water standards. Two water hoses contained the flame retardant 2,3,4,5-tetrabromo-bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (TBPH).

Source: “Garden hoses often contain phthalates and lead, study says,” Los Angeles Times, 5/4/12
Image by Nandhp, used under its Creative Commons license.

When prescription drugs are created, desired proteins need to be isolated from the others, a process called purifying, which is time-consuming and expensive. Capturing the proteins is a necessary step to increase the drugs’ effectiveness, according to a Michigan State University (MSU) press release.

Now, two researchers at the school have developed a method that increases the efficiency of the membrane that helps isolate proteins. The process could help drug makers reduce costs and speed new drugs to the market.

Merlin Bruening, an MSU chemist who has patented the process and is working to scale up his invention, says:

The membrane devices that we’ve manufactured can simplify protein purification by rapidly capturing the desired protein as it flows through membrane pores. Our membranes have two to three times more capacity than existing commercial devices, and they should reduce the purification process time substantially. Typically, our procedures are complete in 30 minutes or less.

At first, the researchers wanted to improve the membranes by growing extended polymer chains within the filters in a multi-step, oxygen-free process. But then the researchers found that direct adsorption — when contaminants are attracted to the surface rather than absorbed into the material — of acidic polymers at low pH was a simpler process that accomplished the same goal.

“Once our findings began steering us toward the simpler solution, we began developing simple processes to modify membranes by simply flowing polymer solutions through the membranes,” Bruening says.

Source: “MSU Invention Could Help Pharmaceutical Industry Save Money,” Michigan State University press release, 4/30/12
Image by Tom Varco, used under its Creative Commons license.

The guidelines were developed by more than 30 companies, representing links in the supply chain of the polyamide called nylon 12, as well as automakers and the Automotive Industry Action Group, reports Rhoda Miel of Plastics News. Nylon 12 is a desirable material because it absorbs very little moisture; is resistant to chemicals, such as hydraulic fluids, oils, fuels, and solvents; dampens noise and vibration; is fatigue-resistant; retains its strength in cold temperatures; and is resistant to abrasion.

In the automotive industry, the resin is used in fuel lines, connectors, tubes, and other key components. Supplies of the material were reduced after a March 31 fire in Germany that destroyed the plant that made the feedstock cyclododecatriene (CDT). The plant also supplied CDT to other nylon 12 makers.

To alleviate concerns about the impact of the shortage, the guidelines were created to speed development of parts using alternate materials. Formerly called the design validation process and report, the guidelines state specific requirements for replacements in areas such as tensile strength and elongation, chemical resistance, fuel exposure, and other key performance areas. Miel further explains the need for the guidelines:

Molders and resin makers have offered a variety of potential replacements including other nylon materials and acetal and polyphenylene sulfide resins. But without a standard validation and testing system in place, approval of those replacements may have been delayed — which in turn could affect automakers’ assembly plants.

The guidelines should lower many production hurdles and simplify the process of bringing new resins to market. At least one automaker does not anticipate production problems because of nylon 12’s shortage.

“We don’t expect any disruption,” Ford Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks says. “We’re pretty clean. That’s largely due to the fact that we have alternative materials that we can use. There had been some materials the team had previously tested, but didn’t use them at that time, so we had material already on the shelf that we could use.”

Source: “Auto industry Releases Guidelines for Nylon 12 Replacement,” Plastics News, 5/2/12
Image by Brian Snelson, used under its Creative Commons license.

What is new about the device — developed by Cameron Health Inc. — is that it is implanted underneath the skin and does not touch the heart, reports Jennifer Corbett Dooren of The Wall Street Journal. Currently, other implantable defibrillators require thin, insulated wires to pass through blood vessels and into the heart.

The FDA’s Circulatory System Devices Panel, made up of non-FDA medical experts, voted 7-1 when asked the question as to whether the device was safe. Also, the panel voted 7-1 when asked whether the benefits of the device outweighed the risks. Both votes amounted to a recommendation that the agency approve the medical device. The panel said that the device represents an additional treatment option for people who are at risk of sudden cardiac arrest from an abnormal heartbeat.

However, the agency said it would not approve the device until concerns about its battery life are completely addressed. The FDA also was concerned about infections and the number of “inappropriate” shocks delivered to the heart, which can hurt patients and drain the battery too quickly. The agency did say, however, that the device’s elimination of the lead wire into the heart was its “primary benefit.”

A clinical study for the defibrillator enrolled 330 patients, and exceeded agency effectiveness and safety goals. However, the agency said that the safety goal did not include all device complications such as 18 infections, four of which required the device to be removed.

Source: “FDA Panel Backs New Defibrillator,” The Wall Street Journal, 4/26/12
Image by Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, FACC, used under its Creative Commons license.

First, there was the $6 Million Man (as anyone over 45 can remember). Then there’s The Terminator (just about everyone else). What is one of the things that the two fictional characters have in common? A bionic eye. And as soon as next year, such a device could become a reality, or at least tested among humans.

Professors from the University of New South Wales in Sydney have developed a prototype that could help blind people see basic shapes, writes Maureen Shelley of The Daily Telegraph. Professors Gregg Suaning and Nigel Lovell hope to have this medical device ready for human recipients by 2013.

The operation to implant the device will take about two hours, says Suaning. “There is a small silicon and platinum electrical array, which slides around to the back of the eye, everything is outside the eye itself,” he says.

After the operation and a month in recovery, the recipients will have the 98 electrodes in the device tested for vision. Shelley explains further on how the bionic eye works:

The processing chip in the bionic eye will be connected to a camera, and the images processed by a smartphone, such as the iPhon. The chip will then send electrical signals along the optic nerve into the brain where they would be decoded as vision, the researchers say.

Researchers want the device to help people see more than just light. “This is an aid to navigation,” Lovell says. “We’re hoping people will be able to distinguish doorways, drop offs and elevated obstacles, such as tree branches.”

Source: “University of NSW Develops Bionic Eye,” The Daily Telegraph, 4/28/12
Source: “UNSW Bionic Eye,” YouTube, 12/3/10

“There are many applications for starch fibers,” says Lingyan Kong, graduate student, food science, who worked on the research team, in a Penn State press release. “Starch is the most abundant and also the least expensive of natural polymers.”

Starch, a polymer typically found in corn, potatoes, arrowroot and other plants, and often thought of as cornstarch, is made of amylose and amylopectin. It does not easily dissolve in water, instead becoming a gel or paste that is too thick to make into fibers. But the researchers solved that problem by adding a solvent that dissolved the starch but kept its molecular structure intact.

After adding the solvent, the food scientists use an electrospinning device that helps stretch the starch solution into fibers. The device sends a high-voltage electrical charge into the mixture to create a charge repulsion to overcome surface tension, which stretches the droplets of starch into long strands.

The fibers can be made using a range of amylose concentrations from 25% to 100%. Because starch is so abundant, it is less expensive than other materials currently used to form fibers, Kong says. For example, cellulose, typically derived from trees, and petroleum-based polymers are the most common sources of polymers. However, they both continue to increase in price, as well as present environmental challenges.

Kong says companies could modify their technique to scale the process for industrial uses. The starch fibers could be used to make toilet paper, napkins, bandages, and other medical dressings.

“Starch is easily biodegradable, so bandages made from it would, over time, be absorbed by the body,” Kong says. “So, you wouldn’t have to remove them.”

Source: “Inexpensive, Abundant Starch Fibers Could Lead to ‘Ouchless’ Bandages,” Penn State press release, 5/1/12
Image by Frivadossi, used under its Creative Commons license.