September 2016

Detecting Emotions With Wireless Signals

September 26, 2016

Left to right: PhD student Fadel Adib, PhD student Mingmin Zhao, and Professor Dina Katabi pose with their EQ-Radio device, which can detect emotion using wireless signals (Image Photo: Jason Dorfman/MIT CSAIL) As many a relationship book [more...]

T2 Biosystems Announces $40 Million Equity Investment by Partner Canon U.S.A.

September 26, 2016

LEXINGTON, Mass., Sept. 22, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — T2 Biosystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTOO), a company developing innovative diagnostic products to improve patient health, today announced the purchase by Canon U.S.A., of approximately $40 [more...]

mFluiDx Uses Mobile and the Cloud to Enable Disease Diagnosis in the Field

September 18, 2016

The Zika outbreak continues to worry the world, yet diagnosing the virus, and any other viruses for that matter, requires a test that is complicated and expensive, not mention difficult to get in and out of the field. mFluiDx is a startup [more...]

New Optofluidic Platform Features Tunable Optics and Novel ‘Lightvalves’

September 18, 2016

A new optofluidic platform for biological sample processing and optical analysis is made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and features tunable optics and novel ‘lightvalves.’ (Photo by C. Lagattuta) For well over a decade, [more...]

Sanofi, Google Parent form $500 Million Diabetes Joint Venture

September 18, 2016

French drugmaker Sanofi (SASY.PA) and Verily, the life sciences unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc(GOOGL.O), on Monday said they would invest about $500 million in a joint venture combining devices with services to improve diabetes care, [more...]

Microfluidic Fuel Cells on Paper

September 12, 2016

Instrument-free point-of-care diagnostic devices could be taken to the next level with the development of microfluidic fuel cells on paper.Paper is cheap, biodegradable, thin and flexible, making it an ideal base material for single-use [more...]

Unlocking DNA and Cancer Mysteries Using Nanopores

September 12, 2016

Cancer thrives when mutated cells undergo frequent division. Most anti-cancer drugs work by inserting themselves in between the DNA base pairs that encode our genetic information. This process is known as intercalation, and it can result [more...]

Raman Scattering Method can Detect Pluripotent Stem Cells with High Sensitivity

September 12, 2016

Researchers at Emory University (Atlanta, GA) have developed an extremely sensitive technique for detecting pluripotent stem cells, which—despite their potential applications—can become tumors when transplanted. The technique uses gold [more...]

Novel Nanoscale Detection of Real-Time DNA Amplification Holds Promise for Diagnostics

September 12, 2016

A photo and a schematic illustration for a nanofluidic diffraction grating. Label-free signals based on a diffraction intensity change were attributed to amplification of DNA molecules, such as human papillomavirus and tubercle bacilli. [more...]

Development of Chemical Sensing Material That Enables Smartphones to Detect Toxic Gases

September 11, 2016

Toxic gas sensor integrated with a near field communication (NFC) tag linked to a smartphone. (Image Credit: NIMS) Researchers in Japan and US jointly developed a chemical sensing material whose electrical conductivity dramatically [more...]

A Device to Control ‘Color’ of Electrons in Graphene Provides Path to Future Electronics

September 11, 2016

This is a scanned electron micrograph of a device used in this experiment. Thin sheets of graphene and hexagonal Boron Nitride are stacked and shaped by electron beam lithography to create this device. The purple layer is the bilayer [more...]

Cepheid Targets Development of a Point of Care HIV Viral Load Test From a Few Drops of Blood

September 11, 2016

Millions of patients, including newborns, in primary health care settings could gain access to a potentially life-changing test for HIV viral load monitoring thanks to a new development effort from Cepheid (Nasdaq: CPHD), which is being [more...]

Microfluidic Chip Enables Fast, Precise Measurement of Single-cell Growth

September 11, 2016

A new technique invented at MIT can precisely measure the growth of many individual cells simultaneously. “The device provides new insights into how cells grow and respond to drugs,” MIT professor Scott Manalis says. (Illustration: [more...]

Microfluidic Methods for Molecular Biology

September 6, 2016

Book Description Amazon Link | Springer Link Authors: Lu, Chang, Verbridge, Scott S May 15th, 2016 Springer Summary This book covers the state-of-the-art research on molecular biology assays and molecular techniques enabled or enhanced [more...]

Cepheid Agrees To Be Acquired By Danaher Corporation

September 6, 2016

Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR) under which Danaher will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Cepheid common stock for $53 per share in cash, [more...]

3D Laser Technology Designs Microscopy Tips at Nanoscale

September 6, 2016

Mechanically stable atomic force microscopy (AFM) tips with arbitrary shapes can now be added to existing AFM cantilevers using 3D direct laser writing technology based on two-photon polymerization (TPP). TPP, a 3D printing process that [more...]

Using Light to Control Genome Editing

September 5, 2016

MIT researchers have added an extra layer of control to the CRISPR gene-editing approach, by making the system responsive to light (Image credit: MIT News) The genome-editing system known as CRISPR allows scientists to delete or replace [more...]

Super-resolution 3-D Microscopy Images Cells

September 5, 2016

Using a new 3-D super-resolution instrument, researchers captured this visualization of a “primary cilium,” the antenna of the cell. (Photo courtesy of Huang et al./Cell) A new ultra-high resolution “nanoscope” is [more...]

Can Microfluidic Device Help to Make Instant Wine?

September 5, 2016

Phillippe Renaud, left, and Daniel Attinger make a tiny toast with wine from Attinger’s microfluidics fermenter, front and center. How does it taste? Meh, Renaud says. (Photo credit: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) For [more...]

Turning Blood into a Laser Emitter for Drug Testing, Cancer Treatment

September 5, 2016

Blood as a laser emitter (image credit: University of Michigan) University of Michigan researchers have successfully demonstrated a new technique that combines laser light with an FDA-approved fluorescent dye to monitor cell structure [more...]