As the current pandemic continues to affect populations around the globe, the search for a viable vaccine for coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) continues. However, rather than constantly scrambling to generate a vaccine after an outbreak happens, some researchers are working on what they see as a better approach: developing a broad-acting “pan-coronavirus” vaccine that provides protection from any coronavirus

Just four letters —A, G, T, and C—make up the alphabet of the genome. It may seem simple, but a small difference in spelling can create mutations that result in life-threatening diseases. Gene variants that cause genetic diseases come in many varieties. Transition point mutations cause conditions such as progeria, the rapid aging disease. Transversion point mutations cause sickle-cell disease and other

Predictive models are designed to remove some of the subjectivity inherent in medical decision-making and to automate certain health-related services with the idea of improving the accuracy of diagnosis, providing personalized treatment options, and streamlining the health care industry overall. More and more of these models using approaches including machine learning are showing up for use in doctor’s

James Greenblatt , functional psychiatrist and chief medical officer at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham, MA, has noticed a disturbing trend in the patient population he sees. “We didn’t take 11- and 12-year-olds, five or 10 years ago,” he says. “They were much fewer, and they could be treated outpatient. But the ages of onset are getting younger and the symptoms are getting more severe.”

For many decades , the popular narrative surrounding anorexia nervosa was that it was an emotional disorder springing from profound cultural pressures combined with dysfunctional family dynamics. Teenage girls, typically, would refuse to eat in an obsessive bid to lose weight. They would imagine themselves to be fat, even if mirrors and scales demonstrated otherwise. Because of the surfeit of images

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) , those tiny cylindrical configurations of pure carbon that have been finding myriad applications in a wide variety of fields, have been the subject of headlines for well over a decade for their potential uses in biological research and medical treatment. Progress toward those goals has been slowed by questions about the safety of the tiny particles when injected directly into

Organ transplantation has become an established and life-saving treatment for patients with end-stage organ failure. However, patients still face constraints when it comes to access to transplantation, as well as its efficacy. One major concern is the global shortage of organs for transplantation. The World Health Organization estimates that only 10% of the worldwide need for organ transplantation

As the saying goes, the point on a pencil is the inspiration and the other end with the eraser is the experience. A pencil without an eraser is next to useless, as I have found out. Yes, I know that, instead of using pencils, we all type on computers these days, but the principle still holds: Experience tempers our creative endeavors with realistic expectations. Whether we are considering engineering

In very old days past, I used to play piano, but not anymore. Age wore out the fingers, but they are not rusty .

The primary author of and eight contributors to this text have generated this overview text of the general area of human biomechanics and gait analysis. All authors are contributors to the field and have leant their experiences to this text. Students and professionals interested in the general area of biomechanics and gait analysis, and applications thereof to areas related to rehabilitation and orthotics

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Long before the coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began, four research groups—two at universities and two at biotechnology companies—were preparing for it by tackling a seemingly outlandish challenge proffered by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense: find a stopgap defense against emerging pathogens, so people would have protection until a longer-term

In a Jetsons episode from 60 years ago, Elroy, the youngest Jetson, tries to get out of taking a space calculus test at school by telling his mom he’s sick. “I think I have Venus Virus,” he says. His mom doubts him, but summons a doctor anyway. She presses a large red button in their living room and a screen rolls down from the ceiling. On it, a doctor instantly appears to evaluate Elroy. “Venus Virus

With the advent of wearable biometric technology like smart watches, “hacking” our bodies’ functions and cycles has become a tool in the never-ending quest for better health. And sleep is no exception. For example, a staggering one-third of Americans don’t get enough sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Before the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) started sweeping across the United States, it began on the coasts. The first known case was reported in a county just outside of Seattle, WA, with other cases quickly cropping up in California and in the greater New York City region. As the virus lingered on the periphery of the country, doctors and physicians working in inland, rural communities worried about

If there’s one thing made abundantly clear as the pandemic rages on, it’s this: Technology alone can’t save us.

Citizens’ dissatisfaction with the scope of the United States health care system has been a hot topic for many years. In a country where patient to nurse ratios remain 6:1, even universal health care coverage cannot guarantee adequate patient care. These issues were further highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, where inadequate hospital funding and lack of attention to patients led to challenging situations

An at-home test for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) could be released commercially as early as August, according to Scanwell Health of Los Angeles. A combination of a finger-prick blood sample and a smart-phone app, the test is designed to detect the presence of antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19. The company hopes to receive

It is easy for me to imagine life without harmonicas, but for my parents’ generation, harmonicas were as common as rain. They were small and easy to fit in a shirt pocket or kit bag, and, whenever an idle moment presented itself, out came the harmonica to render a slightly reedy version of a well-known song: songs like “Red River Valley,” “You Are My Sunshine,” or “Tennessee Waltz.” They were not far

It is said that time marches on, and one thing is certain: Hearing loss marches right along with it.1 The recorded history of hearing loss goes back hundreds of years, and attempts to correct hearing loss have been in existence since the very first person to cup a hand behind one ear. The good news is hearing aids and other assistive listening devices have come a long way since the first rudimentary

This reviewer has an interest in the use of smartphones for various tasks, such as documentation of device failures (photography), inspection of parts (use of borescopes), thermal imaging (attachments for infrared imaging), personal health monitoring (step counting, heart rate monitoring, stress monitoring), and the like. This text was chosen for review as the title purported to cover the overall field

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Qualitative interpretation is a good thing when it comes to reading lung images in the fight against coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19), but quantitative analysis makes radiology reporting much more comprehensive. To that end, several research groups have begun looking to artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for reading and analyzing X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans, and helping to diagnose

One of the most pernicious side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is a steep rise in stress and mental health problems. According to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly half of American adults say that worry and stress about the pandemic is hurting their mental health [1] . There are plenty of factors feeding into this phenomenon. People are anxious about getting sick, grieving lost loved

In March 2020 , before COVID-19 laid claim to the United States, Vice President Mike Pence briefed the press about the coronavirus outbreak, which at the time was a threat to passengers aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship moored off the coast of California [1] . At the time, cases had spiked in Iran, Italy, and Spain, but the disease was still an abstraction to most Americans. When asked about a

The human body is miraculous in its capacity to heal but it can always use a little help. Wound care traditionally consists of little more than a protective barrier, possibly with an antibacterial agent, to cover the damage while the body works its magic. Now, a new technology has opened up a more active approach to encouraging healing.

Wounds, especially chronic wounds, represent a significant clinical, social, and economic challenge. A recent retrospective analysis of Medicare beneficiaries in the United States identified that about 8.2 million people had at least one type of wound, with surgical wounds and diabetic ulcers among the most common and expensive to treat. The study also found that Medicare expenditures related to wound

More than 30% of the world’s population is overweight or obese. That is double the percentage in 1980, and it is getting worse [1] . That excess weight has been linked to numerous health conditions, notably type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes, the prevalence of which has also nearly doubled since 1980 [2] . Eating less and exercising more is good advice, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Other options such

Unlike many other states across America that struggled to get enough diagnostic tests for coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) this past spring, New Mexico was able to not only meet the demand for testing symptomatic patients, but was able to begin expanding its screening to asymptomatic individuals. How did this largely rural and relatively low-income state—among the bottom five states in population

After initial assertions that the wearing of face masks was an unnecessary public health tool in the prevention of the spread of Covid-19, the advice coming out of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suddenly changed. In early April, the CDC issued new guidelines advising people to wear face coverings in public settings where social distancing is difficult.

Students take engineering courses to learn techniques for solving problems. Thus, most engineering courses taken by undergraduate students are highly technical in nature. But, there are many additional techniques and skills that can be learned along the way. Other types of knowledge can also be incorporated into engineering science courses without diminishing the value of the engineering techniques

The title refers to the conceptual quality of being similar, as a kind of resemblance between both procedures.

The need to improve testing platforms for current and new pharmaceuticals has helped generate studies involving “organs-on-a-chip” technologies in recent years. This text, aimed at a readership including biomedical engineers, entrepreneurs, design engineers, new drug investigators, etc., attempts to survey the current state of the art in this area of endeavor. It does this well, with 15 chapters from

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An estimated 792 million people live with mental health disorders worldwide—more than one in ten people—and this number is expected to grow in the shadow of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough mental health professionals to treat all these people. Can artificial intelligence (AI) help? While many psychiatrists have different views on this question, recent

Your breath gives away a lot of information. Besides betraying that you’ve had garlic or onions for lunch, it also contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that provide quite telling biomarkers of disease. Building on the potential capability of VOCs to detect illness, the U.K. company Owlstone Medical is now developing a testing platform called Breath Biopsy [1] as a noninvasive diagnostic method

As computers have progressed over the last few decades, with their component transistors getting ever smaller and ever more numerous on a single chip, that relentless progress, famously described by Moore’s Law, has begun to bump up against fundamental physical limits to what can be done with the present etched-lines-on-silicon technology. But now, a new twist involving an inorganic molecule that has

Female reproductive medicine may not have been entirely overlooked in the history of medical research, but it has never been given the attention that it deserves. There are signs, however, that the spotlight is turning toward the most essential of human processes.

Smart technology is in cellphones, televisions, cars, and home appliances, but smart textiles haven’t inundated the market yet. While engineers have been developing new and interesting ways to marry electronics and fabrics for several years now, the average person isn’t wearing e-tights to audit vital signs during a workout, switching to electronically enhanced bed sheets to track sleep patterns, or

Athletes—and the cadre of professionals who surround them—are always looking for an edge over their opponents. Advances in technology have now made a whole new class of information readily available to athletes, coaches, trainers, and even fans. It’s called biometrics, the science of measuring and analyzing data collected from the body, such as heart rate or hormone levels.

As the global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus continues to spread, researchers from across the world are harnessing their skills and opening their labs to contribute to solutions for managing and addressing the health crisis. One area identified by hospitals and medical providers as a critical need has been the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), which is required to keep health

As the number of coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) cases in the United States began mounting in the early weeks of March, health care workers raised the alarm about a looming shortage of ventilators to treat patients. On March 30, 2020, Ford Motor Company announced plans to produce 50,000 ventilators in 100 days [1] , and General Motors followed suit on April 8, stating that it would deliver out

The ultimate goal of engineering in medicine and biology (EMB) researchers is to improve medical care for patients and communities all over the world by providing a collaborative environment for engineer-scientists and clinicians. In order for this collaboration to occur, however, there must be a widely indexed platform that promotes communication among researchers across a spectrum of nations, both

At this time many (if not all) colleges and universities are on lockdown, students have returned home, and classes have transitioned to online instruction. Students in capstone design courses around the country have no access to their school’s maker spaces and test equipment. Their prototype parts may be stored in a locked maker space, making it difficult to build, test, and deliver prototypes to sponsors

The term Organismic Sets described a puzzling and difficult area of research that apparently appears nowadays forgotten, for recent publications cannot be pinpointed. The objective here intends to find out what this subject deals with, not trying to go deeper in its intrincacies, for it would exceed by far the possibilities of the article. Instead, the article only calls the attention and perhaps stimulates

Ethics can be interesting and fascinatingly compelling because of the subtle natures of its solutions in ambiguous situations. Articles on ethical issues and college courses on ethics rarely present answers to the questions that are posed. That is because ethical responses are highly situational and depend a lot on commonly accepted, but not codified, beliefs, and attitudes.

This text was written by three authors, two of whom have Ph.D. degrees and specialize in applied mathematics. The authors collectively have experience in computational biology, semiconductor device modeling, ophthalmology modeling, and several related fields, these experiences are reflected in the several examples in the text. The text itself consists of some 30 chapters, which are reported in eight

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Are humans the only species with a sense of consciousness? This question has intrigued me for most of my life. Having kept pets and livestock animals, and observed wild animals from both near and far, I have often wondered just how much they know about their surroundings and their place in it. Do they know how to reason out answers to questions important to them? Are they aware of the consequences

Dreadful culprits from the minuscule world, indeed, but … what about poverty, war, and terrorism in the macroscopic nowadays world?