Stanford University Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Stanford researchers think a wireless brain implant could remove tumors

Researchers think a wireless implant to treat brain tumors could eliminate hospital visits for cancer treatment. [Image courtesy of Stanford Medicine]

Researchers at Stanford Medicine have developed a small wireless device that could wirelessly remove deadly brain tumors.

According to the researchers, brain tumors are some of the most deadly and difficult-to-treat cancers. Glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain tumor, kills more than 10,000 Americans a year.

Treating brain tumors typically involves open-skull surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, followed by chemotherapy or radiation. Each treatment option comes with serious side effects and numerous hospital visits.

Stanford Medicine researchers believe they can painlessly and wirelessly, without anesthesia, treat the tumors from a patient’s home.

The researchers developed a small, wireless implant that is remotely a…

Stanford researchers say they cured diabetes in mice

Insulin-secreting pancreatic islet cells transplanted in mice “cured” diabetes. [Image from The Kim Lab/Stanford]

A Stanford Medicine study observed the apparent curing of diabetes in mice following transplantation of insulin-secreting pancreatic islet cells.

Researchers say the animals’ immune systems accepted the donated cells prior to transplantation. This occurs through a three-pronged process they say they could easily replicate in humans. The mice did not need immune-suppressing treatments after the transplant to prevent the rejection of foreign islet cells.

Get the full story at our sister site, Drug Delivery Business News.

How a wrist-worn device treats essential tremors

Cala Health co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Kate Rosenbluth [Photo courtesy of Cala Health]

Cala Health co-founder Kate Rosenbluth developed a solution for essential tremors, a debilitating disorder that can make it difficult to perform daily tasks like drinking from a glass or writing checks.

A neuroscientist and engineer by training, Cala Health co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Kate Rosenbluth saw the necessity for an easy treatment option for essential tremors while doing her biodesign fellowship at Stanford University.

She was performing observations at Stanford Hospital and clinics for several months, following neurosurgeons, neurologists, practitioners and any nurse that was willing to allow her to observe unmet needs in medicine. That’s when she noticed an opportunity to help patients in the field of essential tremor and hand tremor.

Essential tremor is a nervous system d…

New semiconductor design boosts AI computing efficiency

The NeuRRAM chip [Photo by David Baillot for the University of California San Diego]

Medical devices could one day get a boost from a new energy-efficient semiconductor designed with AI computing in mind.

Stanford engineers have developed a new resistive random-access memory (RRAM) chip called NeuRRAM that does AI processing within the chip’s memory, saving the battery power traditionally spent moving data between the processor and storage.

“The data movement issue is similar to spending eight hours in commute for a two-hour workday,” Weier Wan, a recent graduate at Stanford leading this project, said in a news release. “With our chip, we are showing a technology to tackle this challenge.”

They say their compute-in-memory (CIM) chip is about the size of a fingertip and does more work with limited battery power than current chips. That makes the new chip a potential space-saver for medical de…

Stanford startup hires Elbit’s KMC to get blood ammonia device approved and manufactured

Aza Technology’s rapid ammonia monitoring device (AMD) [Photo courtesy of Aza Technology]

Aza Technology has hired Elbit Systems of America’s KMC Systems medical instruments division to get the startup’s rapid blood ammonia detector approved by regulators and ready for manufacturing.

Aza Technology developed the rapid ammonia monitoring device (AMD) with Stanford University and Stanford Hospital to detect hyperammonemia, which can lead to irreversible neurological damage, coma and even death in patients of all ages. Current hyperammonemia testing can take hours, but the new device works within minutes with a drop of blood from an earlobe or finger prick, much like glucometers measure blood sugar.

“Between hospital and/or clinic visits, parents and caregivers are challenged to know ammonia levels and when their level would require immediate attention or action,” Organic Acidemia Associat…