University Technology Medical Devices Sector

Paediatric Spinal Injection Simulator

University Technology — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:30:10 +0100

Spinal injections are commonly required procedures to remove fluid to carry out biochemical, microbiological and cytobiological tests and also for drug delivery. Medical students and practitioners are unable to practice the spinal injection procedure on cadavers, nor can they practice on patients due to the serious danger of spinal injury. Therefore when the procedure has to be carried out, there is ever a risk of injury to the patient. A physical simulator is essential to develop the skills of medical practitioners.

Drug Eluting Stent for High-risk Patients

University Technology — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:58:58 +0100

Stent implantation is a highly effective treatment for restoring blood flow through an atherosclerotic artery; however restenosis occurs in a significant proportion of patients. Drug-eluting stents have been developed to limit restenosis and although they represent a major advance, they have limited effectiveness in diabetic patients. In addition, the drugs that are used at present inhibit the regrowth of the endothelium which is required to protect the artery. Thus, there is a need for an improved drug-eluting stent that will be suitable for diabetic patients, will not harm the endothelium, and will protect against blood clotting.

A Novel Chemotherapy Targeting System based on Nanoparticles

University Technology — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:39:00 +0100

Cancer is believed to account for 12% of deaths worldwide. This incidence is increasing in Western countries, as the average age of the population increases. The University of Strathclyde has been undertaking research into novel delivery systems for the latest drug treatments. Cisplatin, for example, is used to treat a wide variety of human cancers but many cancer cells have, or soon acquire, resistance to it. In addition to the acquired resistance problem, there are also severe side effects associated with these drugs; due mostly to their attack on all rapidly-dividing cells within the body.

Novel Oral Drug Formulation

University Technology — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:22:30 +0100

Oral delivery of drugs is the most common route as it provides a safe, simple way to administer medication in a form that is easy for patients to take. Many drugs cannot be administered orally however, due to problems with degradation in the stomach, poor half life, poor solubility and bioavailability and so there is a need for new methods to formulate drugs for oral administration. Researchers at the University of Strathclyde have developed a novel method of processing, formulating and tableting cucurbiturils as excipients in oral drug formulations to provide a method for enhanced drug formulation.

Microfluidic Chip for High Efficiency Plasma Separation for non-invasive diagnostics

University Technology — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 05:48:24 +0100

Researchers at Heriot-Watt University (Scotland) have designed a microfluidic chip capable of high efficiency separation of (whole) blood into blood plasma and red blood cell streams for further analyses. The high flow design produces a large particle free zone shown to be 100% cell free; extracted plasma is suitable for direct PCR amplification fo the genetic material without further treatment. Separation

Transdermal Patient Monitoring

University Technology — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:12:03 +0100

Control of blood glucose levels through glucose measurement and insulin injection can reduce the occurrence of complications in diabetics. Methods such as the �finger-stick� technique, while relatively cheap, can be cumbersome and painful to use. In addition to diabetes, control of blood glucose levels can play a key role in several important hospital based interventions. A team at the University of Strathclyde has perfected a non-invasive programmable device for measuring blood glucose levels. The same technology can also be adapted to detect other blood circulating molecules such as lactate.

Method to improve DCE MRI

University Technology — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:53:31 +0100

Researchers at the University of Aberdeen have developed an improved method of undertaking DCE MRI (dynamic contrast enhancement magnetic resonance imaging) scans

Bijel Capsules: Co-release Micro-gel

University Technology — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:29:46 +0100

Colloid scientists at the University of Edinburgh have invented a new generic route to gel capsule formulation, involving particles suspended in fluid-bicontinuous mixture of two solvents.

Technology for Improving the Solubility of Drugs

University Technology — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:35:55 +0100

A major problem in the development of medicines is that ~40 - 60% of new drugs discovered are poorly water-soluble. This project exploits a recent University of Strathclyde invention of a novel method of increasing the solubility and / or the dispersibility of poorly water-soluble drugs and hydrophobic particles. The technology, which will be used initially in the formulation and delivery of medicines, offers vast commercial potential as the drug delivery market is currently estimated to be worth ~�20bn worldwide with an annual growth rate of between 10% - 20%.

Chronotherapeutic Drug Delivery Platform

University Technology — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:25:37 +0100

The severity of many diseases such as anxiety, asthma and hypertension varies with the bodies� internal clock. There is increasing evidence to show that these natural rhythms can also affect the bodies responsiveness to drugs and so optimal treatment of these diseases could be enhanced by delivery of the drug at the time when clinical signs develop or increase.

Method for the Identification of Allosteric Drug Binding Sites

University Technology — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:11:58 +0100

Natural allosteric effectors are very difficult to identify because of the complexity of cell metabolism, the practice of assaying enzymes in purified forms away from their natural context, and a general lack of success in predicting the locations of potential binding sites. However, the prediction problem has been tackled at the Uiversity of Strathclyde by development of the Simple Intrasequence Difference (SID) screening service.

Innovative Neonatal Life Support System

University Technology — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:36:27 +0100

The current technology employed in neonatal life support systems for children is derived from cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) systems i.e. heart-lung machines. However, the challenges presented by non-standard CPB applications e.g. Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) for children, tissue, transplant organ perfusion and isolated limb perfusion are quite different to those of conventional CPB, rendering it a sub-optimal approach. Scientists at the University of Strathclyde, working in conjunction with local clinicians, have developed a simple but novel life support system (controlling blood flow & oxygenation) for babies.

Composition with potent and specific bactericidal action against Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA

University Technology — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:08:34 +0100

The invention comprises the combination of a cationic peptide (originally produced by the North American bullfrog Rana catesbeiana) with known potency against Gram +ve bacteria, termed Ranalexin, with a bacterially-produced endopeptidase. The combination of these two molecules results in specific inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus MRSA or MSSA (methicilin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus).

Intelligent Cardiovascular Stent

University Technology — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:41:52 +0100

The use of stents has revolutionised coronary artery disease, however the main disadvantage is the occurrence of restenosis in 20-30 per cent of cases. As in-stent restenosis is not monitored as standard practice, diagnosis only occurs when the patient presents with symptoms. The key benefit of this technology is the ability to introduce economical occasional (clinic), or continuous (acute) monitoring of the in-stent restenosis, transmitting this data to a device outlside the body. Patients progressing to a restenosis situation, which could lead to cardiac infarction and possible death, can therefore be identified and treated.

The Oncology Workbench

University Technology — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 11:06:38 +0100

Developed by Researchers at The Robert Gordon University, The Oncology Workbench is a system to support the design of novel multi-drug cancer chemotherapy regimes. There is a wide variety of anti-cancer drugs available to the modern clinician. These drugs, by their nature, are highly toxic and can cause a number of side effects which are themselves threatening. The oncologist is therefore faced with the task of designing a therapy which achieves the treatment objective whilst limiting the toxic side effects to a reasonable level. The Oncology Workbench uses genetic algorithms to assist the oncologist in this task.