Grantee News

Two recent studies supported by the National Institutes of Health Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Tech program demonstrate how widespread distribution of COVID-19 at-home antigen tests can be used as an effective public health strategy to reduce the spread of the disease. Source: UMass Chan

A new type of COVID-19 test is hitting the market, and could change how we detect the virus. MicroGEM, a Virginia-based molecular biology company with a Charlottesville office, is using its new saliva test to track COVID-19. Source: NBC TV12 Richmond, Virginia.

In a high-tech lab on Johns Hopkins University’s Homewood campus in Baltimore, engineers have been building a robot that may be able to stitch back together the broken vessels in your belly and at some point maybe your brain, no doctor needed. Source: The Baltimore Sun

A small preliminary study from Northwestern Medicine has shown that a blood test may identify risk of stillbirth and placentitis in pregnant individuals who have had COVID-19. The finding builds on another study with similar results and could have implications in how physicians screen for and address high-risk pregnancies.

A new rapid PCR COVID-19 test invented by Northwestern University faculty and Minute Molecular Diagnostics has received FDA emergency use authorization.

Engineering researchers have invented an advanced brain-computer interface with a flexible and moldable backing and penetrating microneedles. Adding a flexible backing to this kind of brain-computer interface allows the device to more evenly conform to the brain’s complex curved surface and to more uniformly distribute the microneedles that pierce the cortex. The microneedles, which are 10 times thinner than the human hair, protrude from the flexible backing, penetrate the surface of the brain tissue without piercing surface venules, and record signals from nearby nerve cells evenly across a wide area of the cortex.

he difference between a social butterfly and a lone wolf is actually at least eight differences, according to new findings by a team of Duke brain researchers.

Currently, there is little research focused on understanding mechanisms and drug discovery of lymphatic vascular diseases. However, conditions such as lymphedema, a buildup of fluid in the body when the lymph system is damaged, impact more than 200,000 people every year in the United States alone.

NIBIB grantee Wilbur Lam was quoted in this Washington Post article about the ‘test to treat’ COVID-19 plan. Lam leads the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered POC Tech at Emory University, which has been evaluating COVID-19 tests for RADx®.

Monitoring vitals and diagnosing ailments can be clunky, painful and inconvenient. But researchers like NIBIB-funded Huanyu “Larry” Cheng at Penn State are working to improve health monitoring by creating wearable sensors that collect data for clinicians while limiting discomfort for patients.