University of Texas at Austin Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

This ‘e-tattoo’ could provide early detection for heart disease

The e-tattoo for monitoring heart health [Image courtesy of the University of Texas]

Researchers at the University of Texas developed a new flexible, wearable “electronic tattoo” for heart monitoring.

The ultrathin, lightweight “e-tattoo” attaches to the chest for continuous, mobile heart monitoring outside of a clinical setting. It features two sensors that combine to provide a clear picture of heart health. Researchers developed it in an effort to give clinicians a better chance to catch early red flags for heart disease.

The Texas team published their study in Advanced Electronic Materials.

“Most heart conditions are not very obvious. The damage is being done in the background and we don’t even know it,” Nanshu Lu, a professor in the Department of Aerospace and Engineering Mechanics and a lead author of the study, said in a post on the UT website. “If we can have continu…

Vaxxas licenses COVID-19 vaccine for patch delivery system, expects to finish Phase 1 trial this year

Vaxxas’ patch comes in a hockey-puck-shaped applicator with a foil seal. [Image courtesy of Vaxxas]Vaxxas announced today that it was granted an exclusive license to a next-generation COVID-19 vaccine for use with its delivery patch.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Vaxxas received the exclusive license from The University of Texas at Austin for its HexaPro SARS-CoV-2 spike subunit vaccine.

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

New chemical probes could help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria

[Image from the University of Texas at Austin]

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are touting chemical probes designed to help identify an enzyme produced by bacterias.

The team at UT Austin developed the probes to identify the enzyme produced by some types of E. coli and pneumococcal bacteria that are resistant to treatment because of their ability to break down several common types of antibiotics, according to a news release.

Get the full story at our sister site, Drug Discovery & Development.

New chemical probes could help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria

[Image from the University of Texas]

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are touting chemical probes designed to help identify an enzyme produced by bacterias.

The team at UT Austin developed the probes to identify the enzyme produced by some types of E. coli and pneumococcal bacteria that are resistant to treatment because of their ability to break down several common types of antibiotics, according to a news release.

In a paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the researchers focused on the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) bacterial enzyme, aiming to create a molecule that glows when it comes into contact with the enzyme. The probes developed by the researchers, once added to a test tube, bind to the enzyme and begin to glow, offering an option for doctors to understand what kind of bacterial threat exists and select the most effective antibiotics for the …

COVID-19 antibody test shows promise in NIH-funded study

From The University of Texas at Austin

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin are touting an accurate antibody test for COVID-19 with lower costs than those currently in use.

According to a news release, the test, developed in collaboration with Houston Methodist and other institutions, is more accurate than the standard antibody tests in use right now and can handle a much larger number of donor samples at a lower overall cost.

The researchers believe that its near-term use can be for identifying the best donors for convalescent plasma therapy and for measuring how well candidate vaccines and other therapies elicit an immune response. Additional uses down the line include assessing relative immunity in those previously invected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and identifying asymptomatic individuals with high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the virus.

“This is potentially gam…