Biomedical Research

News from Brown

New opioid testing techniques could lead to better therapies

June 16, 2025

Brown University engineers partnered with public health experts to create new diagnostic techniques that could help to deliver better, patient-centered care to adults and newborns alike.

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News from Brown

Targeted nanoparticles show promise for more effective antifungal treatments

May 12, 2025

In an advance that could lead to better treatment of troublesome fungal infections, Brown University engineers have developed a nanoscale drug delivery system specially targeted to fungal cells.

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News From Engineering

Engineering’s Shukla named University Salomon award winner

April 24, 2025

Professor Anita Shukla earns one of nine Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Awards from the Division of Research.

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News from Brown

Golden eyes: How gold nanoparticles may one day help to restore people’s vision

April 16, 2025

A team of Brown University researchers has identified a promising new approach that may one day help to restore vision in people affected by macular degeneration and other retinal disorders.

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News From Engineering

Kimani Toussaint appears on The Angel Nest Podcast

March 12, 2025

Kimani Toussaint and Melissa Simon recently appeared on The Angel Nest Podcast to discuss Toussaint's work on pulse oximeters.

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News From Engineering

Under pressure: mini-brains get a surprising shake-up

October 9, 2024

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News from Brown

Brain-computer interface allows man with ALS to ‘speak’ again

August 14, 2024

In a clinical trial and study supported by Brown scientists and alumni, a participant regained nearly fluent speech using a brain-computer interface that translates brain signals into speech with up to 97% accuracy.

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News from Brown

Brown researchers develop brain-inspired wireless system to gather data from salt-sized sensors

March 19, 2024

The novel approach helps advance wireless sensor technology and paves the way for one day using large populations of inconspicuous sensors in implantable and wearable biomedical microdevices.

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News from Brown

New institute convenes biomedical engineers and clinicians to create solutions to improve human health

October 2, 2023

The new Institute for Biology, Engineering and Medicine at Brown University is developing and advancing research collaborations to produce biomedical ideas and innovations with clinical impact.

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News from Brown

Brown’s biomedical engineering institute to lead alliance focused on faculty diversity

October 2, 2023

Researchers from the Institute for Biology, Engineering and Medicine at Brown will lead an effort with Columbia, Johns Hopkins and Yale to increase the number of faculty from historically underrepresented groups.

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News from Brown

New drug delivery system developed by Brown engineers has potential to improve cancer treatments

September 20, 2023

The hydrogel is designed to balance pH levels in a malignant tumor and act as a delivery system for one of the most effective cancer fighting drugs, potentially addressing critical problems faced in current cancer treatment.

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News from Brown

Using topology, Brown researchers advance understanding of how cells organize themselves

September 14, 2023

The research can help unlock answers around how cells assemble themselves during embryonic development and what happens when this fundamental process goes awry.

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News from Brown

Brain-computer interface guides speech-disabled person’s intended words to computer screen

August 23, 2023

Using a brain-computer interface, a clinical trial participant who lost the ability to speak was able to create text on a computer at rates that approach the speed of regular speech just by thinking of saying the words.

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News from Brown

National network of biomedical engineers offer a six-step roadmap to diversify faculty hiring

August 14, 2023

Biomedical engineering scholars from across the nation called for an overhaul of hiring processes in biomedical engineering to increase diversity.

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News from Brown

New method tracking changes in blood vessels could advance brain disease detection

May 25, 2023

A new imaging technique opens a path toward long-term study of blood vessels in aging brains and could help predict neurodegenerative diseases decades before symptoms begin.

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News from Brown

Satellite built by Brown students and launched by SpaceX shows a low-cost way to reduce space junk

March 15, 2023

SBUDNIC, built by an academically diverse team of students using off-the-shelf parts, was confirmed to have successfully operated in orbit, demonstrating a practical, low-cost method to cut down on space debris.

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News from Brown

Brown researchers develop new, automated, powerful diagnostic tool for drug detection

February 10, 2023

The work by a research team made up largely of Brown graduate and undergraduate students addresses a critical biomedical need and has the potential to be widely adapted by clinicians to monitor antidepressants in patients.

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News from Brown

Clinical trials show encouraging safety profile for brain-computer interface turning thoughts into action

January 13, 2023

In an important step toward a medical technology that could help restore independence of people with paralysis, researchers find the investigational BrainGate neural interface system has low rates of associated adverse events.

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News From Engineering

Engineering alumnus Kangping Hu wins Best Paper Award at IEEE Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference

October 18, 2022

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News from Brown

Brown professor develops AI system to detect danger in blood vessels

July 15, 2022

The lab of George Karniadakis, professor of applied mathematics and engineering, leads the charge of developing physics-informed neural networks to diagnose and predict the severity of arterial aneurysms.

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News from Brown

Scientists at Brown develop new method and device to isolate single cells using electric fields

July 14, 2022

The new process, which is more effective and efficient than conventional methods, has the potential to significantly impact cancer diagnostics as well as other fields of research.

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News from Brown

Brain practices new tasks while people sleep, study finds

June 29, 2022

A new study associated with the BrainGate consortium offered significant clues about how humans learn and form long-term memories; the findings could provide insights for developers of assistive tools for people with paralysis.

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News from Brown

New drug delivery system releases therapeutic cargo only when bacteria are present

June 8, 2022

A new material developed at Brown University can respond to the presence of bacterial enzymes by releasing a cargo of therapeutic nanoparticles, which could prove particularly helpful in wound dressings.

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News from Brown

Brown Ph.D. student working to correct skin color bias in pulse oximeters

April 7, 2022

Pulse oximeters often provide inaccurate readings for people with darker skin, a significant health disparity that physics Ph.D. student Rutendo Jakachira is working to eliminate.

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News from Brown

Brown convenes scholars to envision the future of home-based health tech

February 22, 2022

With a massive shift under way toward more home-based health care delivery, more than 90 medical professionals and technologists gathered virtually to explore the challenges and opportunities that change presents.

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News from Brown

Brown researchers develop new model to investigate fibrosis treatments without use of animals

February 1, 2022

A new 3D connective tissue model gives researchers a sophisticated tool to understand the underlying mechanisms of connective tissue disorders and test potential treatments.

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News from Brown

Researchers identify brain signals associated with OCD symptoms, paving way for adaptive treatment

December 9, 2021

The discovery of electrical signals in the brain associated with OCD could enable an emerging type of adaptive deep brain stimulation therapy as an improved treatment.

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News from Brown

Researchers take step toward next-generation brain-computer interface system

August 12, 2021

A new kind of neural interface system that coordinates the activity of hundreds of tiny brain sensors could one day deepen understanding of the brain and lead to new medical therapies.

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News from Brown

New model accounts for the effect of behavior changes to predict COVID-19 cases

June 10, 2021

A new infectious disease model that accounts for people’s ‘level of caution’ or ‘sense of safety’ accurately captures surges and declines in COVID-19 cases since March 2020 — and could help predict how the pandemic will eventually end.

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News from Brown

New algorithm could help enable next-generation deep brain stimulation devices

June 1, 2021

Brown University researchers have developed a technique that could allow deep brain stimulation devices to sense activity in the brain and adjust stimulation accordingly.

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News from Brown

Researchers use ‘hole-y’ math and machine learning to study cellular self-assembly

May 18, 2021

A new study shows that mathematical topology can reveal how human cells organize into complex spatial patterns, helping to categorize them by the formation of branched and clustered structures.

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News from Brown

Brain-computer interface creates text on screen by decoding brain signals associated with handwriting

May 12, 2021

Using a brain-computer interface, a clinical trial participant was able to create text on a computer at a rate of 90 characters per minute just by thinking about the movements involved in writing by hand.

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News from Brown

Researchers demonstrate first human use of high-bandwidth wireless brain-computer interface

March 31, 2021

In an important step toward a fully implantable intracortical brain-computer interface system, BrainGate researchers demonstrated the first human use of a wireless transmitter capable of delivering high-bandwidth neural signals.

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News from Brown

New AI technique could help doctors predict aneurysm rupture

March 25, 2021

A new study shows that an artificial intelligence system informed with the physical laws governing flowing fluids can infer pressures and stresses on capillaries just by analyzing images or videos of blood flow.

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News from Brown

Tiny sensor technique reveals cellular forces involved in tissue generation

February 4, 2021

A team of Brown University researchers developed a technique that uses tiny polymer spheres to sense the forces at play as body tissue forms and grows.

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News from Brown

As the brain plans movements, the middle frontal gyrus is listening

January 12, 2021

A brain-computer interface study reveals one brain region’s surprising role in planning movements exclusively in response to sounds.

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News from Brown

$10 million federal grant expands research to protect against concussions

December 17, 2020

A multi-institution effort to better understand, diagnose and prevent concussions received a $10 million boost from the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

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News from Brown

Researchers discuss BrainGate, restorative neurotechnology at Brown and beyond

October 14, 2020

In a conversation with leaders of Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science, two Brown neuroengineers explored how brain-computer interfaces promise to help restore movement in people with brain or spinal disorders.

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News From Engineering

Imaging technique reveals 3D forces exerted by tiny cell clusters

March 3, 2020

A new technique for mapping the forces that clusters of cells exert on their surroundings could be useful for studying everything from tissue development to cancer metastasis.

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