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Backed by a $2.6 million federal grant, a team of researchers from the University of Rhode Island and the UMass Chan Medical School is developing a wearable device that would be able to detect if people are taking their medication for opioid-use disorder, increasing the likelihood they would remain in treatment and preventing overdose deaths. Source: URI Rhody Today

Researchers have developed a smart phone app that can track and analyze human locomotion—the ability to move from one place to another—and other types of movements. They suggest that using the app costs only 1% of conventional motion analysis techniques and works 25 times faster. Source: NIH News. 

Researchers at Ohio State University have developed nanocarriers derived from mice skin cells that reduced lung inflammation in mice. Further research could lead to a treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome and other conditions.

Dendritic cells are key orchestrators of the immune response, but most vaccination strategies don’t effectively target them. NIBIB-funded researchers have developed biodegradable nanoparticles that are designed to deliver mRNA cargo to dendritic cells in the spleen. Combined with another type of immunotherapy, their vaccine had robust antitumor effects in multiple mouse models.

An NIBIB-funded research education program designed to diversify the biomedical workforce inspired two participants to pursue Ph.D. research in biomedical engineering.

By combining non-invasive imaging techniques, a team of investigators led by Massachusetts General have created a comprehensive cellular atlas of a region of the human brain known as Broca’s area. The methods could be used to create 3D models of particular brain areas and the entire human brain. Source: Massachusetts General Hospital/Science Daily 

UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Lowell have received $8.9 million from the National Institutes of Health in support for their development of home care technology. Source: Worcester Business Journal

Researchers have pushed forward the boundaries of biomedical engineering one hundredfold with a new method for DNA detection with unprecedented sensitivity. Source: University of Massachusetts Amherst/Science Daily

Researchers have long recognized the therapeutic potential of using magnetoelectrics ⎯ materials that can turn magnetic fields into electric fields ⎯ to stimulate neural tissue in a minimally invasive way and help treat neurological disorders or nerve damage. A Rice University led team have designed the first magnetoelectric material that can be used to precisely stimulate neurons remotely and to bridge the gap in a broken sciatic nerve in a rat model.  Source: Rice University