Search for: All records

Abstract Nanomedicine technologies are being developed for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the leading cause of death worldwide. Before delving into the nuances of cardiac nanomedicine, it is essential to comprehend the fundamental sex‐specific differences in cardiovascular health. Traditionally, CVDs have been more prevalent in males, but it is increasingly evident that females also face significant risks, albeit with distinct characteristics. Females tend to develop CVDs at a later age, exhibit different clinical symptoms, and often experience worse outcomes compared to males. These differences indicate the need for sex‐specific approaches in cardiac nanomedicine. This Perspective discusses the importance of considering sex in the safety and therapeutic efficacy of nanomedicine approaches for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of CVD. 

We present a user-centric validation of a teleneurology platform, assessing its effectiveness in conveying screening information, facilitating user queries, and offering resources to enhance user empowerment. This validation process is implemented in the setting of Parkinson's disease (PD), in collaboration with a neurology department of a major medical center in the USA. Our intention is that with this platform, anyone globally with a webcam and microphone-equipped computer can carry out a series of speech, motor, and facial mimicry tasks. Our validation method demonstrates to users a mock PD risk assessment and provides access to relevant resources, including a chatbot driven by GPT, locations of local neurologists, and actionable and scientifically-backed PD prevention and management recommendations. We share findings from 91 participants (48 with PD, 43 without) aimed at evaluating the user experience and collecting feedback. Our framework was rated positively by 80.85% (standard deviation ± 8.92%) of the participants, and it achieved an above-average 70.42 (standard deviation ± 13.85) System-Usability-Scale (SUS) score. We also conducted a thematic analysis of open-ended feedback to further inform our future work. When given the option to ask any questions to the chatbot, participants typically asked for information about neurologists, screening results, and the community support group. We also provide a roadmap of how the knowledge generated in this paper can be generalized to screening frameworks for other diseases through designing appropriate recording environments, appropriate tasks, and tailored user-interfaces. 

Abstract Wireless millimeter-scale origami robots have recently been explored with great potential for biomedical applications. Existing millimeter-scale origami devices usually require separate geometrical components for locomotion and functions. Additionally, none of them can achieve both on-ground and in-water locomotion. Here we report a magnetically actuated amphibious origami millirobot that integrates capabilities of spinning-enabled multimodal locomotion, delivery of liquid medicine, and cargo transportation with wireless operation. This millirobot takes full advantage of the geometrical features and folding/unfolding capability of Kresling origami, a triangulated hollow cylinder, to fulfill multifunction: its geometrical features are exploited for generating omnidirectional locomotion in various working environments through rolling, flipping, and spinning-induced propulsion; the folding/unfolding is utilized as a pumping mechanism for controlled delivery of liquid medicine; furthermore, the spinning motion provides a sucking mechanism for targeted solid cargo transportation. We anticipate the amphibious origami millirobots can potentially serve as minimally invasive devices for biomedical diagnoses and treatments.