Researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed a robotic dispensing interface that uses a microfluidic-embedded container cap – often referred to as a microfluidic Cap-to-Dispense or μCD - to seamlessly integrate robotic operations into precision liquids handling.

Endoscopes are used in many fields of medicine to investigate, diagnose, and treat patients. One common procedure that utilizes an endoscope (known as a bronchoscope), is the procedure of intubation that is conducted over 16 million times in the United States annually. To intubate a patient successfully, a physician needs to insert an endotracheal tube (ETT) into the patient’s mouth and secure it in the airway. A delay in securing the ETT into position of greater than 4 minutes can result in permanent brain injury or death of the patient. Malfunction of an indwelling ETT itself or changes in the airway anatomy may lead to emergent need for ETT exchange. The bronchoscope is the gold standard device for confirming the proper placement of an ETT in the trachea and the ultimate method for regaining control. A detachable endoscope design offers additional key advantages potentially allowing the insertion tube portion to be an economical, disposable, single patient use device, eliminating the concern over superbug cross contamination and reducing cost of processing and maintenance.

UCLA researchers in the Departments of Bioengineering and Head & Neck Surgery have developed a novel robotic platform for the training of transoral surgery.

Protein-based materials have the potential to change the current paradigm of materials science. However, it still remains a challenge to preserve protein hierarchical structure and function while making them readily processable. Protein structure is inherently fluid, and it is this property that contributes to their fragility outside of their native environment. Through the use of rationally designed statistically random heteropolymers, it is possible to stabilize proteins at each hierarchical level and process them in organic solvents, a common need for materials fabrication. The chemical and architectural complexities of statistically random heteropolymers provide a modular platform for tunable protein-polymer-solvent interactions. This provides opportunities not offered by small molecule surfactants or amphiphilic block copolymers. Through evaluation of horseradish peroxidase and green fluorescent protein structure, we show that statistically random heteropolymers can stabilize enzymes. Allowing for activity retention when stored in organic solvent, over 80% activity was observed after 24 hours. Furthermore, horseradish peroxidase and chymotrypsin proteins, when encapsulated in statistically random heteropolymers, are still accessible to their substrates while remaining inaccessible to the denaturing organic solvent. Statistically random heteropolymers have potential in creating stimuli-reponsive materials and nanoreactors composed of proteins and synthetic materials.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Cardiology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine have developed a smart dialysis catheter that can measure different patient vitals in real-time to prevent hospitalizations due to renal failure.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have developed a Compliant Membrane Acoustic Patterning (CAMP) technology capable of patterning cells in an arbitrary pattern at a high resolution over a large area.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering have designed and built a computational cytometer capable of detecting rare cells at low concentration in whole blood samples. This technique and instrumentation can be used for cancer metastasis detection, immune response characterization and many other biomedical applications.

After an injury or neurological event, a patient’s rehabilitation requires long-term assessment and monitoring, especially in the upper extremities that are important for everyday tasks.UCI researchers have developed the Manumeter to quantitatively assess and log a patient’s hand movements without external therapist intervention.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have developed a highly sensitive, wearable hormone monitoring platform.

UCLA researchers from the Department of Electrical Engineering have invented a novel biosensor array that is ultra-low cost and thermally stable. It prolongs the lifetime of electrode modules of sensor products and allows for extended sensing operation in uncontrolled environments.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Electrical Engineering have developed a method of in-situ sweat rate monitoring, which can be integrated into wearable consumer electronics for physiological analyses.

UCLA researchers from the Department of Electrical Engineering have developed a novel sweat induction and sensing platform to achieve personalized physiological monitoring non-invasively.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery have developed a polymer implant coating that mitigates bacterial infections on the implant surface.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have developed an inexpensive and easily implemented plasma diagnostic tool, the Low-Intrusion Probe.

UCLA researchers in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have developed a novel method for real-time detection and characterization of pulsed THz waveforms that features differential detection of high sensitivity, and phase diversity to overcome the dispersion penalty for wideband operation.

Rehabilitation therapy, while an important tool for the long term recovery of patients affected by brain injury or disease, is expensive and requires one-on-one attention from a certified healthcare professional. UCI researchers have developed a computer-based system that provides arm movement therapy for patients. The system allows patients to independently practice hand and arm movements, improving therapeutic outcomes, while reducing hospital visits and cost for both patients and healthcare providers.

A major goal in disease screening, diagnosis, and control has been to develop bioassay platforms capable of simultaneous measurements of different analytes in a single assay. Significant advances toward multiplexed biomarker detection chips based on either immunoassays or enzymatic bioassays have thus been reported. However, the combination of enzymatic and immunoassay sensing into a single disposable system has hitherto not been addressed.

The Variable Friction Shoe, which ameliorates the effects of drop foot.

Researchers at UCI have created miniaturized, flexible, biocompatible reference electrode with a streamline design capable of being used in a variety of different laboratory and clinical environments.

Congenital heart defects affect >1% of babies born in the United States. These defects originate early on in fetal development. Inventors at UC Irvine have developed a flexible medical device that allows at home fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring to diagnosis congenital heart defects during development.

Brief description not available

Researchers at the UCLA Department of Medical and Molecular Pharmacology have developed a compact microfluidic device that is able to achieve rapid concentration and/or reformulation of PET tracers after HPLC purification.

With the planned proliferation of the Internet-of-Things, billions of power limited wireless sensing devices are expected to be sold worldwide.  Within that group is a large subset of applications in which temperature sensing will be important.  Needed for this application space are ultra-small and ultra-low-power temperature sensors. 

Measurements based on electroencephalogram (EEG) are made by placing electrodes over a human scalp to apply and receive electrical signals. Various implementations of EEG sensors are available. The electroencephalogram (EEG) has recently gained popularity for use in various non-clinical studies but still lacks any robust, single application outside well-controlled laboratory environments. As the limitations of EEG are mostly due to the low spatial resolution, using multiple bio-sensing modalities proves to be better performing than EEG alone

UCLA researchers in the Department of Bioengineering have developed a novel electrical charge cancellation scheme to effectively remove residual charge on an electrode, achieving greater precision for lesser hardware cost, while maintaining a surgically implantable small size without extra pulse insertion.