Category Health/Medical

Wearable Health Tech gets Efficiency Upgrade

Photo of flexible, wearable device.
NC State’s improved theromoelectric generator demonstrates efficiency and flexibility. Photo courtesy of Mehmet Ozturk, NC State University.

North Carolina State University engineers have demonstrated a flexible device that harvests the heat energy from the human body to monitor health. The device surpasses all other flexible harvesters that use body heat as the sole energy source.

In a paper published in Applied Energy, the NC State researchers report significant enhancements to the flexible body heat harvester they first reported in 2017. The harvesters use heat energy from the human body to power wearable technologies – think of smart watches that measure your heart rate, blood oxygen, glucose and other health parameters – that never need to have their batteries recharged...

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Nanoparticle Chomps away Plaques that cause Heart Attacks

The dotted line outlines the atherosclerotic artery and the green represents our nanoparticles, which are in the plaque. The red indicates macrophages, which is the cell type that the nanoparticles are stimulating to eat the debris.

Michigan State University and Stanford University scientists have invented a nanoparticle that eats away – from the inside out – portions of plaques that cause heart attacks.

Bryan Smith, associate professor of biomedical engineering at MSU, and a team of scientists created a “Trojan Horse” nanoparticle that can be directed to eat debris, reducing and stabilizing plaque. The discovery could be a potential treatment for atherosclerosis, a leading cause of death in the United States.

The results, published in the current issue of Nature Nanotechno...

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Parkinson’s Disease may start Before Birth

Clive Svendsen, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, right, and Nur Yucer, PhD, a project scientist, discuss a microscope image of dopamine neurons. Photo by Cedars-Sinai.

Stem cell study finds malfunctioning brain cells in patients who were diagnosed before age 50; researchers test potential new treatment. People who develop Parkinson’s disease before age 50 may have been born with disordered brain cells that went undetected for decades, according to new Cedars-Sinai research. The research points to a drug that potentially might help correct these disease processes.

Parkinson’s occurs when brain neurons that make dopamine, a substance that helps coordinate muscle movement, become impaired or die...

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New Light Shed on Damaging Impact of Infrared and Visible Rays on Skin

Professor Mark Birch-Machin in the lab

The damage visible and infrared light can do to our skin has been revealed for the first time in new research by scientists at Newcastle University, UK.

The detrimental effects of exposure to the sun’s rays are well documented, and the main aim of sunscreens is to protect the skin against dangerous ultraviolet radiation (UV).

However, experts at Newcastle University have now scientifically proven that UV rays are not the only type that can penetrate deep into the skin, as visible and infared light can also harm our skin’s cells.

The study, published online today in The FASEB Journal, reveals that the deeper dermal layer of the skin is damaged by UV, visible and infared light and that it may be beneficial for anti-ageing to protect our s...

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