University of California

Pollen Developed Into 3D Printing Ink for Biomedical Applications

Scientists have found a way to use sunflower pollen to develop a 3D printing ink material that could be used to fabricate parts useful for tissue engineering, toxicity testing and drug delivery.

Tiny Robot Earns World Record

The creator hopes his robots can someday be used to solve tricky engineering problems by emulating talented creatures like squid or mice that can seamlessly squeeze themselves like liquid into tight places. Biology, particularly insects, still surpass their robotic counterparts in almost every aspect, but he hopes to develop robots in the next decade that are significantly better at mimicking natural systems.

Enevate

Enevate are a US company developing high-silicon content Li-ion anodes and cells. IDTechEx spoke with Kevin Schrantz, Senior Marketing Director, and Martin Sandor, Marketing Director.

Insect-Sized Robots for Search and Rescue

Many insects and spiders get their uncanny ability to scurry up walls and walk upside down on ceilings with the help of specialized sticky footpads that allow them to adhere to surfaces in places where no human would dare to go. Engineers have used the principle behind some of these footpads, called electrostatic adhesion, to create an insect-scale robot that can swerve and pivot with the agility of a cheetah, giving it the ability to traverse complex terrain and quickly avoid unexpected obstacles.

Bio-Inspired Hydrogel Protects the Heart from Post-Op Adhesions

A hydrogel that forms a barrier to keep heart tissue from adhering to surrounding tissue after surgery was developed and successfully tested in rodents. The team of engineers, scientists and physicians also conducted a pilot study on porcine hearts, with promising results.

Super Productive 3D Bioprinter Could Help Speed up Drug Development

A 3D printer that rapidly produces large batches of custom biological tissues could help make drug development faster and less costly. Nanoengineers developed the high-throughput bioprinting technology, which 3D prints with record speed--it can produce a 96-well array of living human tissue samples within 30 minutes. Having the ability to rapidly produce such samples could accelerate high-throughput preclinical drug screening and disease modeling.

CRISPR-Based Coronavirus Rapid Test

While the coronavirus pandemic has proven once more that the tiniest germ can upset global civilization, a team has responded by illustrating that ancient strategies used by bacteria to battle viruses can be repurposed into transformative technologies.

Researchers Are First to Create Sterile Male Mosquitoes Using CRISPR

Mosquitoes are one of humanity's greatest nemeses, estimated to spread infections to nearly 700 million people per year and cause more than one million deaths.

Ultrasound Stimulation to Reduce Inflammation in COVID-19 In-Patients

Researchers have begun a pilot clinical trial to test the efficacy of using ultrasound to stimulate the spleen and reduce COVID-19-related inflammation, decreasing the length of hospital stays.

System Helps Robots Better Navigate Emergency Rooms

Computer scientists have developed a more accurate navigation system that will allow robots to better negotiate busy clinical environments in general and emergency departments more specifically. The researchers have also developed a dataset of open source videos to help train robotic navigation systems in the future.

Multidisciplinary Team Developing an Immersive Avatar System

A multidisciplinary team developing an immersive avatar system that enables remote human connection has advanced to the semifinals for the $10 million ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition.

Robotic Seafloor Survey Completed

An expedition led by UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography mapped more than 36,000 acres of seafloor between Santa Catalina Island and the Los Angeles coast in a region previously found to contain high levels of the toxic chemical DDT in sediments and the ecosystem. The survey identified an excess of 27,000 targets with high confidence to be classified as a barrel, and an excess of 100,000 total debris objects on the seafloor.

Largest Solar Farm at an Australian University

The Microgrid at Deakin provides a unique opportunity to make a positive contribution in the collective fight against climate change while also conducting high-value research to benefit Australian communities.

Tiny Wireless Implant Detects Oxygen Deep Within the Body

Engineers have created a tiny wireless implant that can provide real-time measurements of tissue oxygen levels deep underneath the skin. The device, which is smaller than the average ladybug and powered by ultrasound waves, could help doctors monitor the health of transplanted organs or tissue and provide an early warning of potential transplant failure.

3D Printed Porous Carbon Aerogels for Space Exploration

Exploration of extremely cold environments, from Earth's polar regions to the moon and Mars, requires technology that can rapidly store and deliver electricity at ultralow temperatures. NASA's Perseverance rover, for example, needs heaters to keep the rover's battery system from freezing in Martian temperatures averaging about -81 F (-62 C).