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the tracking of pressure dynamics over extended with a notable 84 per cent success rate for certain
periods once a patient has left hospital so as to sounds.
provide insights into the risk of heart disease and
The 40 per cent accuracy rate of the decoder is
symptom recurrence.
described as a ‘promising start’ given that it worked
The LHMF has also been refined to track the frictional with just 90 seconds of spoken data.
force of blood on vessel walls, a known biomarker of
The team is now looking to develop a cordless
cardiovascular disease, allowing the researchers to
version, removing the need to be tied to an electrical
create a personalised longitudinal hemodynamic
outlet.
map for each individual, showing how the forces
vary over time. This identifies the percentage of time [ Reference: West, P., Electronic Specifier, 10th.
spent in various vulnerable states, offering insights November 2023 ]
into the progression of heart diseases such as
atherosclerosis.
New Thermal Imaging Technology for
[ Reference: Miles, S., Electronic Specifier, 14th. Diabetic Care
December 2023 ]
Brain Implant for Communication from Thought
A further development by Duke University, this
time by a team of neuroscientists, neurosurgeons
and engineers, is a speech prosthetic that is able
to convert brain signals into speech, enabling
communication abilities to be restored to
individuals with severe neurological disorders.
Current speech decoding technologies typically lag
behind natural speech rates, operating at around 78
words per minute compared to the human average Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have,
of around 150 words per minute. The difference for the first time, 3D-printed hair follicles within
is largely due to the limitations of brain activity human skin tissue cultured in a laboratory setting.
sensors, which are small in number and tend not to
Hair follicles produce sweat, which helps body
provide sufficiently detailed information.
temperature regulation, and contain stem cells that
In order to overcome these limitations the Duke are critical for skin healing. They also serve as entry
Institute for Brain Sciences, which incorporates a points for topical drugs and cosmetics, making
laboratory that specialises in high-density, ultra-thin, them vital for dermatological testing.
flexible brain sensors, attached 256 microscopic
What the researchers have done is to create follicle-
sensors onto a small, medical-grade plastic piece
bearing skin using adapted 3D-printing techniques
that allowed for distinguishing between signals from
suitable for cellular-level printing. This bgins with
neighbouring brain cells involved in speech co-
multiplying skin and follicle cells in the laboratory
ordination.
and then mixing them with proteins to form a ‘bio-
The innovation has been tested on patients ink’. The bio-ink is then meticulously deposited layer
undergoing brain surgery for other conditions, such by layer by the printer so that channels are formed
as Parkinson’s and tumour removal with a task that for the hair cells around which the skin cells migrate
involved a listen-and-repeat activity with nonsense so as to produce follicle structures. Currently these
words, allowing the device to record activity from tissues last for two or three weeks, which is not
the speech motor cortex. The neural and speech enough for hair shaft development, but the team is
data was fed into a machine learning algorithm and aiming to extend this lifespan, thus paving the way
the decoder displayed varying levels of accuracy, for their use in drug testing and skin grafts, which
would mark a new era in skin tissue engineering and
regenerative medicine.
Leader of the study Dr. Pankey Karande comments:
“ Our work is a proof-of-concept that hair follicle
structures can be created in a highly precise,
reproducible way using 3D-bioprinting. This kind
of automated process is needed to make future
biomanufacturing of skin possible.
Some studies have shown that if these cells are
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