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A Rice University bioengineer and her Brown School of Engineering team were awarded an NIH grant to create gene activity sensors and activators that hold unmatched potential for the treatment of infectious diseases, diabetes, genetic disorders, and cancer. Source: AZO Life Sciences

The RADx program has paved a path forward for small- and medium-sized diagnostics companies with innovative ideas and novel technologies to help meet public health challenges and compete in the marketplace. A funded network of agile academic or private laboratories that can objectively evaluate novel clinical tests, whether they originate from the largest diagnostics companies or new startups, can provide impartial and cost-effective third-party assessments of test performance to facilitate FDA decision making. Source: Nature Biotechnology.

NIBIB-funded research drives progress in the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of middle ear infections.

Bioengineers have developed biocompatible self-assembling “piezoelectric wafers,” which can be made rapidly and inexpensively to enable broad use of implantable muscle-powered electromechanical therapies.

NIH-funded researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated the potential of a neuromodulation approach that uses low-intensity ultrasound energy, called transcranial focused ultrasound—or tFUS.

Estimates developed by PHICOR, a public health research group, suggest that more than 40 percent of U.S. residents may not be sufficiently protected against the Delta variant. Source: New York Times. New York Times.

Researchers are pushing organ-on-a-chip devices to new levels that could change the way clinicians approach cancer treatment, particularly ovarian cancer.

Nanofiber-based treatments stimulate the body to mount its own biological attack on immune disorders.

In an opinion piece, Roxanne Khamsi, a science journalist covering the COVID-19 pandemic, says that “throughout the pandemic, there have been various kinds of medical anomalies,” such as “people who test positive for months and others who never get infected despite living in close quarters with Covid sufferers.” Khamsi writes that “such surprising cases are often declared ‘outliers’ and shrugged off (and, indeed, should be downplayed when designing public health policies for the general population), but unusual examples of any disease can offer important insights for scientists, and most critically, lead to new medicines for that illness and others.” NIBIB immunologist Kaitlyn Sadtler is quoted as saying, “The complexity of the immune system cannot be overstated. ... It makes it amazingly effective but amazingly difficult to understand.” Source: New York Times