• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Thursday, July 31, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Bioengineering

Experts create intelligent ‘plaster’ to monitor patients

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 21, 2014
in Bioengineering, EDITOR'S CHOICE
Reading Time: 2 mins read
1
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Medical engineers said Sunday they had created a device the size of a plaster which can monitor patients by tracking their muscle activity before administering their medication.

Experts create intelligent'plaster' to monitor patients

High performance multifunctional wearable electronics integrated with nanoparticles are conformally attached to the skin for the diagnosis and therapy of motion-related neurological disorders. The image shows the multifunctional wearable devices partially peeled away from the skin. Credit: Donghee Son and Jongha Lee

Methods for monitoring so-called “movement disorders” such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease have traditionally included video recordings or wearable devices, but these tend to be bulky and inflexible.
The new gadget, which is worn on the skin, looks like a Band-Aid but uses nanotechnology—in which building blocks as small as atoms and molecules are harnessed to bypass problems of bulkiness and stiffness— to monitor the patient.

Scientists have long hoped to create an unobtrusive device able to capture and store medical information as well as administer drugs in response to the data.

This has proved difficult due to the large amount of onboard electronics and storage space required, high power consumption, and the lack of a mechanism for delivering medicine via the skin.

But although monitoring helps to track disease progression and allows better treatment, until now the electronics used in the devices have been hard and brittle, and not ideal for an on-the-skin device.
But the team from South Korea and the United States said they had found the solution in nanomaterials, creating a flexible and stretchable device that resembles an adhesive plaster, about one millimetre (0.04 inches) thick.

Still a prototype, the gadget comprises multiple layers of ultrathin nanomembranes and nanoparticles, the creators wrote in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

“The team use silicon nanomembranes in the motion sensors, gold nanoparticles in the non-volatile memory and silica nanoparticles, loaded with drugs, in a thermal actuator,” they wrote in a summary.
The study showed that when worn on the wrist of a patient, the patch could measure and record muscle activity.

The recorded data then triggered the release, with the aid of a wafer-thin internal heater, of drugs stored inside the nanoparticles.

A temperature sensor made of silicon nanomembranes monitored the skin temperature to prevent burns during drug delivery.

“This platform overcomes the limitations of conventional wearable devices and has the potential to improve compliance, data quality and the efficacy of current clinical procedures,” the authors wrote.
Dae-Hyeong Kim from the Center for Nanoparticle Research in Seoul said that the device currently needs a microprocessor from an external computer, which could be in a wristwatch, to which it is attached with thin wires.

“But in the future wireless components will be incorporated,” to make the device independent and fully mobile, he told AFP.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by AFP, Nicholas Tufnell.

Share14Tweet9Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Why is the first Turkish bioengineering promotion website, Biyomuhendislik.com, so important?

February 4, 2023
blank

Robo-fish

September 19, 2016

Mice born from ‘tricked’ eggs

September 17, 2016

UCLA researchers use stem cells to grow 3-D lung-in-a-dish

September 16, 2016
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    60 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Study Reveals Beta-HPV Directly Causes Skin Cancer in Immunocompromised Individuals

    37 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 9
  • Engineered Cellular Communication Enhances CAR-T Therapy Effectiveness Against Glioblastoma

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

α-Synuclein Fibril Structure Drives Parkinson’s Seeding

Not All Low-Grade Prostate Cancers Pose Low Risk, Study Finds

Examining the Link Between GLP-1 Receptor Agonists and Nonarteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy Risk in Older Adults with Diabetes

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.