As more machine learning tools reach patients, developers are starting to get smart about the potential for bias to seep in. But a growing body of research aims to emphasize that even carefully trained models — ones built to ignore race — can breed inequity in care. Source: STAT

As they grow, solid tumors surround themselves with a thick, hard-to-penetrate wall of molecular defenses. Getting drugs past that barricade is notoriously difficult. Now, scientists have developed nanoparticles that can break down the physical barriers around tumors to reach cancer cells. Once inside, the nanoparticles release their payload: a gene editing system that alters DNA inside the tumor, blocking its growth and activating the immune system. Source: Science Daily/UT Southwestern Medical Center

Improvements in brain sensing technologies have allowed clinicians to perform increasingly complex surgeries and enabled researchers to map the signals of the brain that control feeling, movement, and thought.

Osteoarthritis – a painful condition that results from the deterioration of the cartilage in our joints – affects millions of people worldwide. To combat this issue, NIBIB-funded researchers are developing an implantable, biodegradable film that helps to regenerate the native cartilage at the site of damage. Their study, performed in rabbits, could be an initial, important step in the establishment of a new treatment.

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a method to scan and image the blood flow and oxygen levels inside a mouse brain in real-time with enough resolution to view the activity of both individual vessels and the entire brain at once. This new imaging approach breaks long-standing speed and resolution barriers in brain imaging technologies and could uncover new insights into neurovascular diseases like stroke, dementia and even acute brain injury. Source: Science Daily/Duke University

This NIBIB-funded research is focused on creating a new group of nanomaterials designed to capture chemotherapy drugs before they impact healthy tissue. Source: AzoNano

NIBIB-funded researchers are developing an imaging method that would allow surgeons to better identify cancerous cells in breast tumor margins during surgery. This technique could lead to a reduction in follow-up breast cancer surgeries and reduce rates of breast cancer recurrence.

New research introduces a novel network analysis technology that uses minimally invasive resting state electrophysiological recordings to localize seizure onset brain regions and predict seizure outcomes in just 10 minutes. Source: Carnegie Mellon University

Researchers are improving the odds for patients with the development of an implantable soft electronic vascular monitoring system. Their smart stent and printed soft sensors, is capable of wireless real-time monitoring of hemodynamics without batteries or circuits. Source: Science Daily/Georgia Tech