Healthcare
Special Delivery: can advanced intracellular delivery enable superior cell therapies for solid tumour treatment – and beyond?
Reimagining the future
Healthcare
Key early-stage microfabrication decisions for life science start-ups and SMEs
Many companies face important early-stage decisions about how best to access cleanroom and laboratory facilities, equipment and know-how towards microfabrication – get these decisions wrong and progress to market can become painfully slow, says Fred Hussain.
Healthcare
Spotlight on upconversion nanoparticles: finding the right chemistry to make life science applications “click”
Biomedical imaging and diagnostic platforms increasingly demand stable detection reagents and quantifiable signal output. Upconversion nanoparticles fit the bill and, in the hands of Wenshu Xu and Verity Jackson, allow for multiplex biomarker detection.
Healthcare
Complex generics pharmaceutical devices: scaling the barriers to entry
Many generics companies have experienced the challenges of getting a “complex generic” to market firsthand. But, argues David Cottenden, there are device strategies to stack the odds in your favour…
Healthcare
Imaging by the numbers: quantitative imaging for digital pathology
Pathology is going digital and novel quantitative imaging approaches will take diagnostic power to the next level while creating opportunities for automation in the multi-billion tissue diagnostics industry. Alexander Carr reviews steps towards quantification in 2019.
Healthcare
How to develop microfluidics for commercial products
Whilst microfluidic devices have huge potential, most fail to progress beyond research use, let alone reach mass consumer markets similar to products in the microelectronics industry. But developers are increasingly using cycles of (1) optimised designs, (2) apt manufacturing, and (3) robust testing to create highly integrated and compact devices with exciting functionality for widespread application.
Healthcare
What is a good innovation strategy in surgery… and is it robotics?
Robotic surgery is a hot topic: the concept is popular with patients, on the minds of industry leaders, and seen as the future of surgery by many investors. Too often, robotic-assisted surgery is equated with precision, and precision with improved clinical outcomes. Excitement is driving investment and a growing number of robotic-assisted surgery companies. But, in basic terms, what is a good innovation strategy in surgery… and is it robotics?
Healthcare
Beyond intravenous delivery: choosing better administration routes for oncologic drugs
Intravenous delivery remains the dominant paradigm in oncology, but even with precision medicine few drugs pass late stage clinical trials. Karthik Chellappan proposes that early exploration of better administration routes could make all the difference.
Healthcare
Human learning with machine learning: the game of Go and real-life applications
When working with machine learning tools and algorithms, we often assume that only the machine is learning. Not so, argues Mark Hsieh. To achieve maximum value, we need to learn from the results generated by algorithms to better understand the problem we are trying to solve, for example in predicting disease progression in diabetes.
Healthcare
Could technology help contain the next equine flu epidemic?
Humanity has endured infectious disease epidemics for as long as it’s existed. However, as global connectivity grows so does the rate at which they can spread and the number of people they can affect. The origin of epidemics is the random genetic mutation of pathogens so we have no control over their arrival but technology offers very real control over the way they spread.
Healthcare
New modes of drug action tackle intractable diseases
2018 was a busy one for the US Food and Drug Administration. Drug approvals hit a record high, with 59 novel drugs securing the agency’s permission to head to market. This included a number of drugs with modes of action that transcend the two main classes of drugs.
