Posted on 07/20/2016 2:40:38 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Researchers at Tufts University have developed a “toolkit” of biocompatible threads that can sense everything from temperature to pH to physical strain...
"Most sensors that people build are typically on hard substrates like glass or silicone. We were very interested in making sensors that we can intimately interface with tissues and biological things,” said Dr. Sameer Sonkusale, the lead researcher and an associate professor of electrical engineering at Tufts University.
The researchers started with cotton thread, like the ones that make up your shirt, and worked from there to develop an entire toolkit of sensors. The team has moved on from cotton thread to polyurethane, a plastic like substance, and rubber but the fundamentals of why they chose thread haven’t changed. Thread is biocompatible, thin, flexible and widely available.
The researchers created all of these different threads for their toolbox and tested them on the mice. The threads were as accurate as over-the-counter sensors and were biocompatible with the mice — cells grew on, and around, the thread with little inflammation or adverse reactions.
...
The threads are attached to a small, half-credit card sized transmitter that sends the data collected by the thread to an iPhone app via bluetooth.
Suturing with these threads is just one possible use for them. They could be attached to implants to monitor healing and scare tissue or sewn into clothes and bandages.
...
While implanted threads still have years before seeing human trials and clinical use — they have to pass human trials and FDA regulations — non-implanted threads, sewn into medical materials like bandages, could see pilot studies within a year or two, researchers said. Sonkusale hopes to use the threads to monitor wound healing and infection by connecting them to a membrane that would cover the wound.
(Excerpt) Read more at wbur.org ...
The idea of being cut on scares my tissues very much. :)
The $60 man.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.