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Topic Review
Endoscopy Lifetime Systems Architecture
Systems engineering captures the desires and needs of the customer to conceptualize a system from the overall goal down to the small details prior to any physical development. While many systems projects tend to be large and complicated (i.e., cloud-based infrastructure, long-term space travel shuttles, missile defense systems), systems engineering can also be applied to smaller, complex systems. The system of interest is the endoscope, a standard biomedical screening device used in laparoscopic surgery, screening of upper and lower gastrointestinal tracts, and inspection of the upper airway.
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Supramolecular Adhesive Materials with Antimicrobial Activity
Taking advantage of the dynamic and reversible interactions such as hydrogen bonding, pi-pi stacking, electrostatic interactions, host-guest interactions, hydrophobic effects, and van der Waals interactions, a variety of functional supramolecular adhesive materials have been developed to realize tough bonding on tissues or organs. Non-covalent interactions are widely exploited and proved effective in developing supramolecular polymers and polymer composites with desired mechanical strength, interfacial adhesion, and intelligent, responsive properties. These supramolecular adhesive materials are promising for a range of biomedical applications.
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Biological Killing by Cold Plasma
Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) is a near-room-temperature partially ionized gas, composed of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. CAP also generates physical factors, including ultraviolet irradiation, thermal emission, and an electromagnetic (EM) effect. The multimodal chemical and physical nature of CAP makes it a suitable, controllable, flexible, and even a self-adaptive tool for many medical and biological applications, ranging from microorganism sterilization, dermatitis, wound healing, and cancer therapy. It is promising that CAP could help to mitigate the COVID 19 pandemic by effectively inactivating the SARS-CoV-2 virus on diverse surfaces.  Biological killing is a foundation to understand these applications. Reactive species and their radical effects are the foundation to cause the CAP-based biological destruction in most cases. Basically, plasma medicine has even been regarded as a reactive species-based medicine. Here, we provide a systematic introduction and critical summary of the entire picture of biological killing due to CAP treatment and corresponding mechanisms based on the latest discoveries. This work provides guiding principles for diverse applications of CAP in modern biotechnology and medicine.
  • 1.3K
  • 28 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Geometrical Design of Lattices in Additive Manufacturing
Additive manufacturing (AM, also known as 3D printing) is an advanced manufacturing technique that has enabled progress in the design and fabrication of customised or patient-specific (meta-)biomaterials and biomedical devices (e.g., implants, prosthetics, and orthotics) with complex internal microstructures and tuneable properties. Several design guidelines have been proposed for creating porous lattice structures, particularly for biomedical applications.
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Advances in Translational Nanotechnology
       The burgeoning field of nanotechnology aims to create and deploy nanoscale structures, devices, and systems with novel, size-dependent properties and functions. The nanotechnology revolution has sparked radically new technologies and strategies across all scientific disciplines, with nanotechnology now applied to virtually every area of research and development in the US and globally. NanoFlorida was founded to create a forum for scientific exchange, promote networking among nanoscientists, encourage collaborative research efforts across institutions, forge strong industry-academia partnerships in nanoscience, and showcase the contributions of students and trainees in nanotechnology fields. The 2019 NanoFlorida International Conference expanded this vision to emphasize national and international participation, with a focus on advances made in translating nanotechnology. This review highlights notable research in the areas of engineering especially in optics, photonics and plasmonics and electronics; biomedical devices, nano-biotechnology, nanotherapeutics including both experimental nanotherapies and nanovaccines; nano-diagnostics and -theranostics; nano-enabled drug discovery platforms; tissue engineering, bioprinting, and environmental nanotechnology, as well as challenges and directions for future research.
  • 1.3K
  • 30 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Complications of Dual Modular Stems
Titanium (Ti) alloys have been proven to be one of the most suitable materials for orthopaedic implants. Dual modular stems have been introduced to primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) to enable better control of the femoral offset, leg length, and hip stability. However, this recent innovation in the femoral stem design has proven itself to be an innovation trap actually. 
  • 1.3K
  • 10 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Skin Cancer Detection Using Infrared Thermography
Infrared thermography technology has improved dramatically in recent years and is gaining renewed interest in the medical community for applications in skin tissue identification applications. However, there is still a need for an optimized measurement setup and protocol to obtain the most appropriate images for decision making and further processing. Nowadays, various cooling methods, measurement setups and cameras are used, but a general optimized cooling and measurement protocol has not been defined yet. It is possible to improve thermal images of skin lesions by choosing an appropriate cooling method, infrared camera and optimized measurement setup.
  • 1.3K
  • 16 May 2022
Topic Review
Reprogramming of α-Cells into Insulin Producing Cells
Numerous cell sources are being explored to replenish functional β-cell mass since the proof-of -concept for cell therapy of diabetes was laid down by transplantation of islets. Various strategies that aim to generate bone fide insulin producing cells are explored.  In particular on reprogramming and especially on α-cells conversion into insulin producing cells are focused here. A logical place to begin with for generating β-cells is to utilise the plasticity of closely related endoderm derived cell types like pancreatic non-β-cells and coaxing them to adopt a β-cell phenotype. Given the close ontogenetic relationship, functional similarity and dependency among these cells, the potential for interconversion is unequivocal. Phenotypic plasticity between pancreatic α-cells and β-cells is notably pronounced.
  • 1.3K
  • 16 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Wearable Sensing Technology and Long COVID
Long COVID consequences have changed the perception towards disease management, and it is moving towards personal healthcare monitoring. Wearable sensors are being explored for its simplicity, portability, and real time health monitoring system. These smart devices can detect physiological changes in the human body providing a real time solution for quicker medical decision.
  • 1.3K
  • 09 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Exosomes and Glioma Treatment
More than 40 years ago, vesicle structures, similar to “cytoplasmic fragments” physiologically released, were identified in the cellular matrix. Their peculiarity was their ability to contain various materials, including ribosomes, which are involved in several pathological and physiological activities.These systems were defined as extracellular vesicles (EVs), and they include a wide variety of vesicles (from 30 nm to 5 μm) released from the plasma membrane (PM) of many different cell types into several bodily fluids. All EVs present a lipid bilayer membrane that surrounds a pool of genetic material, cytosolic proteins, or cellular debris. However, they significantly differ in terms of size, biogenesis, mechanisms, and function. Among these membrane vesicles, the most well-studied EVs are exosomes.  Exosomes have sizes ranging between 30 and 150 nm and represent a homogenous population of EVs released from cells when multivesicular bodies (MVBs) are fused with the membrane through inward budding in a highly regulated process. As natural carrier systems, exosomes present low immunogenicity, low toxicity, stability in the bloodstream, and efficient cell uptake due to their endogenous cellular tropism. Furthermore their ability to mediate intercellular communication allows their use as a promising therapeutic and diagnostic tool.
  • 1.3K
  • 24 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Graphene Based Materials and Their Antimicrobial Properties
Graphene-based materials are found as excellent resources and employed as efficient anti-microbial agents, and they have been receiving significant attention from scientists and researchers in this regard.
  • 1.3K
  • 12 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Wearable Sensors and Machine Learning for Hypovolemia Problems
Hypovolemia is a physiological state of reduced blood volume that can exist as either (1) absolute hypovolemia because of a lower circulating blood (plasma) volume for a given vascular space (dehydration, hemorrhage) or (2) relative hypovolemia resulting from an expanded vascular space (vasodilation) for a given circulating blood volume (e.g., heat stress, hypoxia, sepsis). The external environment and the user's level of physical activity can exacerbate hypovolemic challenges to the body. Noninvasive, wearable sensing systems are being developed to track a user's ability to compensate for these challenges. 
  • 1.3K
  • 13 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Poly-L-Lactic Acid as a Biomaterial
Synthetic biopolymers are effective cues to replace damaged tissue in the tissue engineering (TE) field, both for in vitro and in vivo application. Among them, poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) has been highlighted as a biomaterial with tunable mechanical properties and biodegradability that allows for the fabrication of porous scaffolds with different micro/nanostructures via various approaches. Tissue engineering applications of biomaterials have widely focused on studying synthetic polymers due to their interesting mechanical strength, elasticity, and biodegradability.
  • 1.3K
  • 01 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Pesticide Aptasensors
Contamination by pesticides in the food chain and the environment is a worldwide problem that needs to be actively monitored to ensure safety. Unfortunately, standard pesticide analysis based on mass spectrometry takes a lot of time, money and effort. Thus, simple, reliable, cost-effective and field applicable methods for pesticide detection have been actively developed. One of the most promising technologies is an aptamer-based biosensor or so-called aptasensor. It utilizes aptamers, short single-stranded DNAs or RNAs, as pesticide recognition elements to integrate with various innovative biosensing technologies for specific and sensitive detection of pesticide residues. Several platforms for aptasensors have been dynamically established, such as colorimetry, fluorometry, electrochemistry, electrochemiluminescence (ECL) and so forth. Each platform has both advantages and disadvantages depending on the purpose of use and readiness of technology. For example, colorimetric-based aptasensors are more affordable than others because of the simplicity of fabrication and resource requirements. Electrochemical-based aptasensors have mainly shown better sensitivity than others with exceedingly low detection limits. This paper critically reviews the progression of pesticide aptasensors throughout the development process, including the selection, characterization and modification of aptamers, the conceptual frameworks of integrating aptamers and biosensors, the ASSURED (affordable, sensitive, specific, user-friendly, rapid and robust, equipment-free and deliverable to end users) criteria of different platforms and the future outlook.
  • 1.3K
  • 22 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Small-Diameter Vascular Graft Engineering
The increased demands of small-diameter vascular grafts (SDVGs) globally has forced the scientific society to explore alternative strategies utilizing the tissue engineering approaches. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) comprises one of the most lethal groups of non-communicable disorders worldwide. It has been estimated that in Europe, the healthcare cost for the administration of CVD is more than 169 billion €. Common manifestations involve the narrowing or occlusion of blood vessels. The replacement of damaged vessels with autologous grafts represents one of the applied therapeutic approaches in CVD. However, significant drawbacks are accompanying the above procedure; therefore, the exploration of alternative vessel sources must be performed. Engineered SDVGs can be produced through the utilization of non-degradable/degradable and naturally derived materials. Decellularized vessels represent also an alternative valuable source for the development of SDVGs. In this review, a great number of SDVG engineering approaches will be highlighted. Importantly, the state-of-the-art methodologies, which are currently employed, will be comprehensively presented. A discussion summarizing the key marks and the future perspectives of SDVG engineering will be included in this review. Taking into consideration the increased number of patients with CVD, SDVG engineering may assist significantly in cardiovascular reconstructive surgery and, therefore, the overall improvement of patients’ life.
  • 1.3K
  • 22 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) is the term coined by British biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey for the diverse range of regenerative medical therapies, either planned or currently in development, for the periodical repair of all age-related damage to human tissue with the ultimate purpose of maintaining a state of negligible senescence in the patient, thereby postponing age-associated disease for as long as the therapies are reapplied. The term "negligible senescence" was first used in the early 1990s by professor Caleb Finch to describe organisms such as lobsters and hydras, which do not show symptoms of aging. The term "engineered negligible senescence" first appeared in print in Aubrey de Grey's 1999 book The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging. De Grey called SENS a "goal-directed rather than curiosity-driven" approach to the science of aging, and "an effort to expand regenerative medicine into the territory of aging". While many biogerontologists find it "worthy of discussion", some contend that the ultimate goals of de Grey's programme are too speculative given the current state of technology, referring to it as "fantasy rather than science".
  • 1.3K
  • 26 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Additive Manufacturing to Reproduce Atherosclerotic Blood Vessels
Physical biomodels mimicking atherosclerotic blood vessels could be an interesting tool to be applied in personalized surgical planning and even for surgeons' trainning. In this context, additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing, has attracted significant attention due to the potential to fabricate biomodels rapidly. However, the production of such models first requires a consensual and definitive evaluation of the mechanical properties of healthy and atherosclerotic blood vessels, to acuuratey select the adequate "printable" materials. 
  • 1.3K
  • 13 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Camera-Imaging-Based Measurement of Vital Signs
Techniques for noncontact measurement of vital signs using camera imaging technologies have been attracting increasing attention. For noncontact physiological assessments, computer vision-based methods appear to be an advantageous approach that could be robust, hygienic, reliable, safe, cost effective and suitable for long distance and long-term monitoring. In addition, video techniques allow measurements from multiple individuals opportunistically and simultaneously in groups.
  • 1.3K
  • 07 Sep 2020
Topic Review
Digital Twins for Tissue Culture
Digital twins in the field of tissue culture include the mechanistic of the biological system in the form of diverse mathematical models, which describe the interaction between tissue culture techniques and cell growth, metabolism, and the quality of the tissue.
  • 1.3K
  • 08 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Polymeric Biomaterials and Lubricants
With increasing environmental concerns and the depletion of petroleum resources, the development of lubricant additives from bioresources has attracted much attention recently. In this entry, a few polymers and polymer composites are reported, which are synthesized from vegetable oils (soybean oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil, and castor oil) and used as multifunctional additives in the formulation of eco-friendly lubricant compositions. We mentioned the preparation of vegetable oil-based homo- and copolymers and their characterization by different spectral techniques (FTIR/NMR). 
  • 1.2K
  • 20 May 2021
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