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    Mending a Broken Heart, the Bioengineering way

    February 16, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Electroconductive Melt Electrowritten Patches Matching the Mechanical Anisotropy of Human Myocardium. Advanced Functional Materials, 2020; 1909880 DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201909880

    Bioengineers from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, have developed a prototype patch that does the same job as crucial aspects of heart tissue. Their patch withstands the mechanical demands and mimics the electrical signalling properties that allow our hearts to pump blood rhythmically round our bodies.

    Their work essentially takes us one step closer to a functional design that could mend a broken heart.

    One in six men and one in seven women in the EU will suffer a heart attack at some point in their lives. Worldwide, heart disease kills more women and men – regardless of race, than any other disease.

    C...

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    Mars: Simulations of Early Impacts produce a Mixed Mars Mantle

    February 16, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Early Mars after impact, showing projectile materials leaving the planet
    Courtesy of Southwest Research Institute A Southwest Research Institute team performed high-resolution, smoothed-particle simulations of a large, differentiated projectile hitting early Mars after its core and mantle had formed. The projectile’s core and mantle particles are indicated by brown and green spheres respectively, showing local concentrations of the projectile materials assimilated into the Martian mantle.

    The early solar system was a chaotic place, with evidence indicating that Mars was likely struck by planetesimals, small protoplanets up to 1,200 miles in diameter, early in its history...

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    ‘Smart’ Bandages Heal Chronic Wounds

    February 15, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Illustration of the
    A UConn researcher has helped develop a new “smart bandage” that could improve clinical care. (courtesy of Dr. Ali Tamayol)

    Chronic and non-healing wounds – one of the most devastating complications of diabetes and the leading cause of limb amputation – affects millions of Americans each year. Due to the complex nature of these wounds, proper clinical treatment has been limited.

    For the first time, faculty in the biomedical engineering department – a shared department with the UConn School of Dental Medicine, School of Medicine, and School of Engineering – designed a wirelessly-controlled, or “smart,” bandage and corresponding smartphone-sized platform that can precisely deliver different medications to the wound with independent dosing.

    This bandage, developed by Dr...

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    ‘Multitasking’ AI Tool to Extract Cancer Data in record time

    February 15, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    The image visualizes how the team’s multitask convolutional neural network classifies primary cancer sites. Image credit: Hong-Jun Yoon/ORNL
    The image visualizes how the team’s multitask convolutional neural network classifies primary cancer sites. Image credit: Hong-Jun Yoon/ORNL

    To better leverage cancer data for research, scientists are developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-based natural language processing tool to improve information extraction from textual pathology reports. In a first for cancer pathology reports, the team developed a multitask convolutional neural network (CNN) – a deep learning model that learns to perform tasks, such as identifying key words in a body of text, by processing language as a two-dimensional numerical dataset.

    As the second-leading cause of death in the United States, cancer is a public health crisis that afflicts nearly one in two people during their lifetime...

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