<div class="page photo" style=""> <article> <header style=" background-image:url(/imageLibrary/keyboard-338507_1549.jpg); "> <div class="box"> <div class="intro" style="color: #000;"> <h1 style="color: #000 !important;">What's New</h1> <p class="summary"></p> </div> </div> </header> <div class="main"> <div class="container"> <p class="byline"> </p> <p><img src="/uploads/548a3e5560b12_1549.JPG" unselectable="on"></p><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/organic-electronics-deliver-pain-canceling-molecules" target="_blank">Organic Electronics Deliver Pain-Canceling Molecules</a></h4><p>May 8, 2015 by Emmily Waltz</p><p><p><img src="/uploads/55fbe71b8ae3c.jpg" unselectable="on"></p></p><p>Researchers invented an implanted bioelectronic device that delivers therapeutic drugs to rats’ spinal cords with unprecedented precision, reducing pain without side effects, according to <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/4/e1500039">a study published today in <em>Science Advances</em></a>. The researchers say that by delivering lower doses of pain medication in a more targeted way, side effects that often accompany traditional administration of pain medications can be avoided.</p><p>“To the best or our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of drug delivery with a bioelectronic device in such a selective way,” says Daniel T. Simon, an assistant professor at Linköping University in Sweden, and a researcher on the project. “There has been electrophoretic delivery of drugs done. But there hasn’t been this type of precision and local delivery,” he says.</p><p><p><img src="/uploads/55fbea3349fcd.jpg" unselectable="on"></p></p><p>Localized delivery was the key, says Simon. Pain medications and other drugs are often administered systemically—spreading throughout the body. Someone recovering from a knee surgery, for example, might take an oral narcotic to <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/tiny-implants-combat-chronic-pain">block the pain</a>, but in doing so, other pain and regulatory signals in the nervous system are also blocked, causing lethargy. A drug that can be administered directly to the site of injury in small doses could reduce such side effects. </p><p><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/organic-electronics-deliver-pain-canceling-molecules" target="_blank">Read more</a></p><p><img src="/uploads/54ad19735dcd3_1549.jpg" unselectable="on"></p><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4></h4><h4><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/electronic-skin-patch-with-memory-and-drug-delivery-could-treat-parkinsons" target="_blank">Electronic Skin Patch With Memory and Drug Delivery Capability Could Treat Parkinson’s</a></h4><p> By Prachi Patel posted&nbsp;31 Mar 2014</p><p><p><img src="/uploads/55fbe9102a831.jpg" unselectable="on"></p></p><p>Photo: Donghee Son and Jongha Lee</p><p><p>Researchers have made an electronic skin patch that can monitor muscle movement, store the data it collects, and use stored data patterns to decide when to deliver medicine through the skin. The patch could be useful for monitoring and treating <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/a-chip-to-better-control-brain-stimulators-for-parkinsons">Parkinson’s disease</a> and <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/biomedical/bionics/neuropace-controlling-epilepsy-with-a-brain-implant">epilepsy</a>, its creators say. <p> Wearable devices that continuously monitor physiological cues can help doctors understand and treat diseases such as epilepsy, heart failure, and Parkinson’s. A few research groups have been trying to develop discreet health monitoring devices based on <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/bionic-skin-for-a-cyborg-you">flexible, stretchable electronics</a> that can be plastered on the <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/materials/tissuethin-electronics-that-float-on-the-breeze">skin</a>, heart or <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/materials/gold-nanoparticles-in-polyurethane-make-a-stretchy-conductor">brain</a>.</p><p> But the new system is the first that can store data and deliver drugs, says <a href="http://flextronics.snu.ac.kr/?mid=Professor">Dae-Hyeong Kim</a>, a chemical and biological engineering professor at Seoul National University and one of the device’s creators. In the "closed-loop feedback system," says Kim, the stored data is used for statistical pattern analysis, which helps to track symptoms and drug response. "For more quantitative tracking of progression of symptoms and responses to medications, wearable healthcare devices that monitor important cues, store recorded data, and deliver feedback therapeutic agents via the human skin in a controlled way are highly required," he says.</p><p><p>Kim and his collaborators at the University of Texas at Austin and <a href="http://theinstitute.ieee.org/technology-focus/technology-topic/athletes-cap-sends-out-alerts-about-head-injuries">wearable health-monitoring device-maker</a> <a href="http://www.mc10inc.com/">MC10</a> integrated the sensors, memory, and drug-delivery components, all made of nanomaterials, onto a stretchable polymer substrate that is soft and flexible like human skin. They reported their design in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2014.38.html"><em>Nature Nanotechnology</em></a>.</p></p></p><p><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/electronic-skin-patch-with-memory-and-drug-delivery-could-treat-parkinsons" target="_blank">Read more</a></p><h4></h4><h4></h4> </div> </div> </article> </div><!-- /page-->