Space Tango unveil their autonomous, robotic space based manufacturing platform
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The benefits of manufacturing products in space are clear, but it’s still complex and expensive, this technology could help make space based manufacturing a commercial reality. Over the past year or so I’ve been seeing more and more references made to not just space...
FDA approves first spray on skin treatment for burns
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Treating third degree burns today often involves skin grafts and more pain for the patient, spray on skin will put an end to that misery. Over the past couple of years we’ve gotten increasingly good at 3D printing human skin and making artificial skin...
Simple pixel hack cripples state of the art AI medical imaging systems
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As AI becomes increasingly pervasive in healthcare companies need to be aware that a new simple attack on their AI imaging and diagnostic systems could cause untold chaos, and even result in deaths. Recently we’ve seen how a duelling AI that adjusted a pixel or...
Empatica’s smartwatch predicts Epileptic seizures
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Epileptic seizures are debilitating, but they can also be fatal, this latest breakthrough pre-warns people before they have them. Embrace is a smartwatch of a different kind. It’s able to tell time, analyse sleep patterns, and, more crucially, it’s also able to tell if you’re about...
IBM wants to combine AI and blockchain to transform healthcare
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI and blockchain are two incredibly powerful technologies, but for different reasons, however, when they’re combined their significance, and impact, becomes even greater. The combination of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) “could bring significant improvements to a healthcare sector plagued by interoperability problems and...
Ultrasound on a smartphone, Butterfly Network release the iQ
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Healthcare in many countries is expensive and difficult to access, tools like these help democratise access to vital services helping people live longer, healthier lives. Engineer Jonathan Rothberg became famous for creating the world’s first DNA sequencer on a chip called the Ion Torrent back in...
FDA approves use of world’s first neuro controlled exoskeleton
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today millions of people in the world, for a variety of reasons, have trouble moving their bodies, but new brain controlled exoskeletons could help them regain their movement and rehabilitate them at the same time. People familiar with the Terminator series from the 1980’s...
The FDA just approved it’s first trackable smart pill, more to follow
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Not everyone takes their medication but now companies and doctors can tell precisely when and if a patient has taken their prescribed meds, but it opens up a whole set of questions about ethics, privacy and security. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...
3D printing breakthrough lets hospitals and doctors print drugs on demand
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Medical supply chains are incredibly complex and highly regulated but now we’re on the cusp of 3D printing human organs and prosthetics on demand, and medicines are following suit. Medicine gets a lot of attention, but normally it’s to do with drug development rather...
The FDA begins “Humans on Chips” trials to replace animal testing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bit by bit animal testing is slowly being replaced by new more modern methods, the FDA’s new “Humans on Chips” collaboration will accelerate its demise and make drug testing cheaper, faster and safer. A future without animal testing has taken a step closer this...
Meat without the animals, Memphis Meats shows off new lab produced beef, chicken and duck dishes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Setting side huge areas of the earth to raise animals is wasteful and environmentally costly, but all of that might soon move into a lab. If you thought that your children will enjoy the same family roast that you’ve always enjoyed then it might...
Hacking pacemakers and medical implants gets harder as FDA issues new cybersecurity guidelines
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF More and more implanted medical devices are becoming connected devices and this exposes them to cyberattacks, the FDA’s new cybersecurity guidance hopes to curtail, and prevent deaths that might result from an attack on people’s IMD’s. You have a pace maker. It’s hacked. You’re...
Promising HIV vaccine moves to human trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF HIV is a stubborn virus and while scientists have managed to “rip” it out of patients noone has yet managed to create a vaccine for it, we’re hoping that is about to change HIV is a stubborn disease but over the past year scientists...
Second Sight’s bionic eye helps restore a woman’s sight
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Neuroprosthetics provides individuals with crippling or debilitating conditions, whatever their origin, with the opportunity to regain sensations and capabilities, such as sight and hearing, that would otherwise be impossible. Over the past several years, people with degenerative eye diseases could recover some their vision...
Researchers cut HIV genes out of living cells using CRISPR
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF One day researchers hope they can do the same in Humans. In a world first, scientists led by Kamel Khalili, director of the Comprehensive NeuroAIDS Center at Temple University, report in the journal Gene Therapy that they have for the first time successfully eliminated...
Feeding the world with lab grown foods gets closer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF This could cause a conundrum – is lab made meat considered vegan? From an environmental and humanitarian point of view it’s easy to argue the case for lab produced food. In order to feed the same global population lab grown foods would consume 55% less energy to...
Nerve zapping dust sized electrical implants could be the future of medicine
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Hundreds of millions of people suffer every day from chronic disease, pain and illness but now a new class of medicine is on the horizon Imagine a world where we can treat diabetes, chronic pain and autoimmune disorders with a small zap of electricity delivered by...
