Researchers from Northwestern Medicine and Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering have created the world’s smallest wearable, battery-free sensor.
The sensor is designed to measure exposure to light across multiple wavelengths spanning UV to visible light.
It’s able to record up to three separate wavelengths of light at once.
The team says that the underlying physics and extensions of the platform give it a wide array of potential clinical applications.
The device is solar powered and very robust, and said to be “virtually indestructible.” During a study where human participants wore the sensor, the sensor recorded multiple forms of light exposure during outdoor activities, even when the user was in the water.
The sensor was also used to monitor therapeutic UV light in clinical phototherapy booths used to treat psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.
Just not very well
Video Engineers have overhauled the classic handheld 8-bit Game Boy to include solar panels on the front and an internal electromagnetic coil to generate electrical energy from button presses. Not so much batteries not included as batteries not needed.…
A new method developed by Northwestern Engineering's Manijeh Razeghi has greatly reduced a type of image distortion caused by the presence of spectral cross-talk between dual-band long-wavelength photodetectors.
The work opens the door for a new generation of high spectral-contrast infrared imaging devices with applications in medicine, defense and security, planetary sciences, and art preservation.
"Dual-band photodetectors offer many benefits in infrared imaging, including higher quality images and more available data for image processing algorithms," said Razeghi, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering.
"However, performance can be limited by spectral cross-talk interference between the two channels, which leads to poor spectral contrast and prevents infrared camera technology from reaching its true potential."
A paper outlining her work, titled "Suppressing Spectral Crosstalk in Dual-Band Long- Wavelength Infrared Photodetectors with Monolithically Integrated Air-Gapped Distributed Bragg Reflectors," was recently published in the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.
The use of dual-band detection in night-vision cameras, for example, can help the wearer better distinguish between moving targets and objects in the background.
"Understanding macromolecular motion is critical, but scientists know very little about it," said Vadim Backman, Walter Dill Scott Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University.
Now, a research team at the McCormick School of Engineering led by Backman has developed a new optical technique to study the movement of cells without using labels or dyes to track them.
The innovative method has also revealed an undiscovered phenomenon that may play a role in the earliest stages of cell death.
The paper is titled "Multimodal interference-based imaging of nanoscale structure and macromolecular motion uncovers UV induced cellular paroxysm."
While scientists can currently track the movement of cells using molecular dyes or labels, the practice comes with limitations.
Labels are attached to cells, can be toxic or result in photobleaching, and may alert the motion of the very molecules they label.
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Antimicrobial paints offer the promise of extra protection against bacteria.
But Northwestern University researchers caution that these paints might be doing more harm than good.
In a new study, the researchers tested bacteria commonly found inside homes on samples of drywall coated with antimicrobial, synthetic latex paints.
Within 24 hours, all bacteria died except for Bacillus timonensis, a spore-forming bacterium.
Most bacilli are commonly inhabit soil, but many are found in indoor environments.
"Bacillus is typically innocuous, but by attacking it, you might prompt it to develop more antibiotic resistance."
EVANSTON, Ill. --- More than 40 billion capillaries -- tiny, hair-like blood vessels -- are tasked with carrying oxygen and nutrients to the far reaches of the human body.
Now a Northwestern University team has developed a new tool that images blood flow through these tiny vessels, giving insight into this central portion of the human circulatory system.
Called spectral contrast optical coherence tomography angiography (SC-OCTA), the 3D-imaging technique can detect subtle changes in capillary organization for early diagnosis of disease.
"Now we can see even the smallest capillaries and measure blood flow, oxygenation and metabolic rate."
The paper was published last week in the journal Light: Science and Applications.
Backman is the Walter Dill Scott Professor of Biomedical Engineering in Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering.
Wrong -- at least when working with "flakes" of graphene oxide (GO).
A new study from Northwestern University researchers shows that better GO "paper" can be made by mixing strong, solid GO flakes with weak, porous GO flakes.
The finding will aid the production of higher quality GO materials, and it sheds light on a general problem in materials engineering: how to build a nano-scale material into a macroscopic material without losing its desirable properties.
"To put it in human terms, collaboration is very important," said Jiaxing Huang, Northwestern Engineering professor of materials science and engineering, who led the study.
"Excellent players can still make a bad team if they don't work well together.
Here, we add some seemingly weaker players and they strengthen the whole team."
A team of researchers including Northwestern Engineering faculty has expanded the understanding of how virus shells self-assemble, an important step toward developing techniques that use viruses as vehicles to deliver targeted drugs and therapeutics throughout the body.
By performing multiple amino acid substitutions, the researchers discovered instances of epistasis, a phenomenon in which two changes produce a behavior different from the behavior that each change causes individually.
"We found occurrences where two separate single amino acid changes caused the virus shell to break or become really unstable, but making both changes together produced a stable structure that functioned better than ever," said Danielle Tullman-Ercek, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering.
The paper titled "Experimental Evaluation of Coevolution in a Self-Assembling Particle," was published the March 19 print issue of Biochemistry.
Tullman-Ercek served as the paper's co-corresponding author along with collaborator Matthew Francis, professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley.
The work builds on past research in which Tullman-Ercek and collaborators developed a new technique, called SyMAPS (Systematic Mutation and Assembled Particle Selection), to test variations of a protein used by a bacterial virus called the MS2 bacteriophage.
Researchers from Northwestern Medicine and Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering have created the world’s smallest wearable, battery-free sensor.
The sensor is designed to measure exposure to light across multiple wavelengths spanning UV to visible light.
It’s able to record up to three separate wavelengths of light at once.
The team says that the underlying physics and extensions of the platform give it a wide array of potential clinical applications.
The device is solar powered and very robust, and said to be “virtually indestructible.” During a study where human participants wore the sensor, the sensor recorded multiple forms of light exposure during outdoor activities, even when the user was in the water.
The sensor was also used to monitor therapeutic UV light in clinical phototherapy booths used to treat psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.
Just not very well
Video Engineers have overhauled the classic handheld 8-bit Game Boy to include solar panels on the front and an internal electromagnetic coil to generate electrical energy from button presses. Not so much batteries not included as batteries not needed.…
A new method developed by Northwestern Engineering's Manijeh Razeghi has greatly reduced a type of image distortion caused by the presence of spectral cross-talk between dual-band long-wavelength photodetectors.
The work opens the door for a new generation of high spectral-contrast infrared imaging devices with applications in medicine, defense and security, planetary sciences, and art preservation.
"Dual-band photodetectors offer many benefits in infrared imaging, including higher quality images and more available data for image processing algorithms," said Razeghi, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering.
"However, performance can be limited by spectral cross-talk interference between the two channels, which leads to poor spectral contrast and prevents infrared camera technology from reaching its true potential."
A paper outlining her work, titled "Suppressing Spectral Crosstalk in Dual-Band Long- Wavelength Infrared Photodetectors with Monolithically Integrated Air-Gapped Distributed Bragg Reflectors," was recently published in the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.
The use of dual-band detection in night-vision cameras, for example, can help the wearer better distinguish between moving targets and objects in the background.
"Understanding macromolecular motion is critical, but scientists know very little about it," said Vadim Backman, Walter Dill Scott Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University.
Now, a research team at the McCormick School of Engineering led by Backman has developed a new optical technique to study the movement of cells without using labels or dyes to track them.
The innovative method has also revealed an undiscovered phenomenon that may play a role in the earliest stages of cell death.
The paper is titled "Multimodal interference-based imaging of nanoscale structure and macromolecular motion uncovers UV induced cellular paroxysm."
While scientists can currently track the movement of cells using molecular dyes or labels, the practice comes with limitations.
Labels are attached to cells, can be toxic or result in photobleaching, and may alert the motion of the very molecules they label.
EVANSTON, Ill. --- More than 40 billion capillaries -- tiny, hair-like blood vessels -- are tasked with carrying oxygen and nutrients to the far reaches of the human body.
Now a Northwestern University team has developed a new tool that images blood flow through these tiny vessels, giving insight into this central portion of the human circulatory system.
Called spectral contrast optical coherence tomography angiography (SC-OCTA), the 3D-imaging technique can detect subtle changes in capillary organization for early diagnosis of disease.
"Now we can see even the smallest capillaries and measure blood flow, oxygenation and metabolic rate."
The paper was published last week in the journal Light: Science and Applications.
Backman is the Walter Dill Scott Professor of Biomedical Engineering in Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering.
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Antimicrobial paints offer the promise of extra protection against bacteria.
But Northwestern University researchers caution that these paints might be doing more harm than good.
In a new study, the researchers tested bacteria commonly found inside homes on samples of drywall coated with antimicrobial, synthetic latex paints.
Within 24 hours, all bacteria died except for Bacillus timonensis, a spore-forming bacterium.
Most bacilli are commonly inhabit soil, but many are found in indoor environments.
"Bacillus is typically innocuous, but by attacking it, you might prompt it to develop more antibiotic resistance."
Wrong -- at least when working with "flakes" of graphene oxide (GO).
A new study from Northwestern University researchers shows that better GO "paper" can be made by mixing strong, solid GO flakes with weak, porous GO flakes.
The finding will aid the production of higher quality GO materials, and it sheds light on a general problem in materials engineering: how to build a nano-scale material into a macroscopic material without losing its desirable properties.
"To put it in human terms, collaboration is very important," said Jiaxing Huang, Northwestern Engineering professor of materials science and engineering, who led the study.
"Excellent players can still make a bad team if they don't work well together.
Here, we add some seemingly weaker players and they strengthen the whole team."
A team of researchers including Northwestern Engineering faculty has expanded the understanding of how virus shells self-assemble, an important step toward developing techniques that use viruses as vehicles to deliver targeted drugs and therapeutics throughout the body.
By performing multiple amino acid substitutions, the researchers discovered instances of epistasis, a phenomenon in which two changes produce a behavior different from the behavior that each change causes individually.
"We found occurrences where two separate single amino acid changes caused the virus shell to break or become really unstable, but making both changes together produced a stable structure that functioned better than ever," said Danielle Tullman-Ercek, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering.
The paper titled "Experimental Evaluation of Coevolution in a Self-Assembling Particle," was published the March 19 print issue of Biochemistry.
Tullman-Ercek served as the paper's co-corresponding author along with collaborator Matthew Francis, professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley.
The work builds on past research in which Tullman-Ercek and collaborators developed a new technique, called SyMAPS (Systematic Mutation and Assembled Particle Selection), to test variations of a protein used by a bacterial virus called the MS2 bacteriophage.