Tag: MIT
MIT’s “Perfect Mirror” Technology Used To Shrink Tumor
by bethany on Nov.20, 2008, under Cancer
Medical lasers are like science fiction heat rays that can vaporize tumors. The problem has been getting the lasers to where they are needed inside the body while protecting healthy tissue.
Now “perfect mirror” technology, developed by MIT researchers, is being used to shoot a laser through a spaghetti-thin, flexible fiber to attack tumors and other diseased tissue in highly targeted, minimally invasive surgery.
OmniGuide fiber, licensed through MIT’s Technology Licensing Office, scored a world first at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston last October when thoracic surgeon Dr. Raphael Bueno used it to shrink a patient’s cancerous lung tumor by 90 percent. Although carbon dioxide lasers have been used for more than 30 years to surgically remove diseased tissue in the throat, larynx, intestines and elsewhere, there was no easy way to get the lasers inside the body. Extensive surgery was required.
Using Tissue Engineering To Treat Heart Defects
by andreas on Nov.03, 2008, under cardiology
A confocal micrograph depicts a honeycomb scaffold
A new scaffold developed at MIT could be seeded with stem cells or live heart cells to treat heart damage or congenital heart defects. The scaffold would gradually dissolve leaving tissue in its wake. The tissue is expected to be able to replicate the properties of the heart’s own tissue.
According to Lisa E. Freed, a researcher in the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, the scaffold could be made with custom structural mechanical properties.
A scanning electron micrograph depicts a scaffold for cardiac tissue engineering magnified 100x. Image courtesy of G.C. Engelmayr, Jr.
