Computer simulations “provide patients with a realistic picture of what they would look like after their surgery and are constrained by what is actually surgically possible,” said biomedical engineer Mia Markey. Photo by Melissa Mixon.
This story was first published on the Cockrell School of Engineering Web site. It was written by Melissa Mixon.
Faculty and students at the Cockrell School of Engineering are developing ways for cancer patients and children born with facial deformities to make more informed decisions about which reconstructive surgeries would be most aesthetically pleasing and practical based on their individual body types and personal preferences.
This is a preview of Biomedical Engineering Simulation peers into your Future looks after Surgery.
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Researchers characterize biomechanics of ovarian cells in mice according to their phenotype at early, intermediate, and late-aggressive stages of cancer
Using ovarian surface epithelial cells from mice, researchers from Virginia Tech have released findings from a study that they believe will help in cancer risk assessment, cancer diagnosis, and treatment efficiency in a technical journal:Nanomedicine.
By studying the viscoelastic properties of the ovarian cells of mice, they were able to identify differences between early stages of ovarian cancer and more advanced and aggressive phenotypes.
Targeted biopsy, a major advance in prostate cancer diagnostics, was detailed by a UCLA team in the current issue of Urologic Oncology. The new technology fuses MRI with real-time 3D ultrasound, providing an exacting method to obtain biopsy specimens from suspicious areas in the prostate.
The unique fusion method provides a major improvement in the way prostate biopsy is performed since the current biopsy methods were developed in the mid-1980s, according to UCLA professor of urology Dr. Leonard S. Marks, a study author.
This is a preview of MRI fused with Ultrasound for Guided Prostate Biopsy @ UCLA.
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Soon, drug delivery that precisely targets cancerous cells without exposing the healthy surrounding tissue to the medication’s toxic effects will no longer be an oncologist’s dream but a medical reality, thanks to the work of Professor Sylvain Martel, Director of the Nanorobotics Laboratory at Polytechnique Montréal.
Known for being the world’s first researcher to have guided a magnetic sphere through a living artery, Professor Martel is announcing a new breakthrough in the field of nanomedicine. Using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, his team successfully guided
microcarriers loaded with a dose of
anti-cancer drug through the bloodstream of a living rabbit, right up to a targeted area in the liver, where the drug was successfully administered. This is a medical first that will help improve chemoembolization, a current treatment for liver cancer.
Microcarriers on a mission
This is a preview of World First: Localized Delivery of an Anti-Cancer Drug by Remote-Controlled Microcarriers.
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A new study on tumour evolution and spread carried out by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory(CSHL) has found out that tumours wont evolve gradually,but they do it in a punctuated manner(bursts).It is a finding that has already shed new light on the process of tumor growth and metastasis, and may help in the development of new methods to clinically evaluate tumors.
The majority of drugs do not penetrate from blood into the brain because of the hematoencephalic barrier existing between them. This creates a lot of difficulties for brain tumor treatment. Russian researchers have developed a system for drug delivery into the brain with the help of nanoparticles and demonstrated its efficiency on laboratory animals.
Glioblastoma is the most widespread and the most dangerous variety of the brain malignant tumor. At the moment, chemotherapy of such tumors has little effect due to existence of the hematoencephalic barrier – the filter that prevents alien agents (including drugs) from passing into the brain. Researchers worldwide are working to create medicinal systems, which could be used for glioblastoma therapy.
This is a preview of Nanoparticles making “inroads” into Brain Drug delievery.
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