Category Health/Medical

NTU researcher Lee Jia Min working on 3D bioprinting of blood vessels. Credit: Image courtesy of Nanyang Technological University

Tissue implants customized to a patient could soon be printed using a new type of 3D-printer under development by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and a Singapore-based 3D printing start-up focused on healthcare. This new printer can print the supporting structure layer by layer and insert living cells to form a live tissue that could aid in regeneration of particular tissues or organs. The industry research tie-up is one of the many partnerships made possible by the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster, also known as NAMIC.

Since the formation of NAMIC by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore and SPRING Singap...

The “Mama-Ope” (Mother’s Hope) kit, invented by Ugandan engineers, is a biomedical smart jacket and a mobile phone app that diagnoses pneumonia faster than a doctor (AFP Photo/ISAAC KASAMANI)

A team of Ugandan engineers has invented a “smart jacket” that diagnoses pneumonia faster than a doctor, offering hope against a disease which kills more children worldwide than any other. The idea came to Olivia Koburongo, 26, after her grandmother fell ill, and was moved from hospital to hospital before being properly diagnosed with pneumonia. “It was now too late to save her,” said Koburongo. “It was too hard to keep track of her vitals, of how she’s doing, and that is how I thought of a way to automate the whole process and keep track of her health.”

Koburongo took her idea to fellow telecommunic...

Researchers find BCX—red pigment abundant in sweet red peppers, paprika, winter and butternut squash, oranges, and tangerines, among other foods—appears to counteract nicotine’s ability to accelerate the growth of lung tumors. Photo: Ingimage

Xiang-Dong Wang, a cancer researcher at Tufts, has spent a long time trying to figure out why carotenoids, the main pigments providing colors that range from yellow and pink to deep orange and red in most fruits and vegetables, seem to keep chronic diseases at bay. When a 2004 study by other researchers showed that eating foods containing beta-cryptoxanthin (BCX)—a red pigment abundant in sweet red peppers, paprika, winter and butternut squash, oranges...

Smart needle which is able to detect blood vessels deep in the body. Credit: University of Adelaide

A new high-tech medical device to make brain surgery safer has been developed by researchers at the University of Adelaide. The tiny imaging probe, encased within a brain biopsy needle, lets surgeons ‘see’ at-risk blood vessels as they insert the needle, allowing them to avoid causing bleeds that can potentially be fatal. The project is a collaboration with the University of Western Australia and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. “We call it a smart needle...