This wireless system can track tumours, help dispense drugs

Aug 20, 2018
New York:A team of researchers including a scientist of Indian origin has developed an “in-body GPS” system that can pinpoint the location of ingestible implants inside the body using low-power wireless signals.

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) led by professor Dina Katabi developed “ReMix” system that, in animal tests, demonstrated that it can track implants with centimetre-level accuracy.

In the future, doctors can implant sensors to track tumours or even dispense drugs using this non-invasive wireless system, the team hoped.

“We want a model that’s technically feasible while still complex enough to accurately represent the human body,” said Deepak Vasisht, lead author on the new paper.

“If we want to use this technology on actual cancer patients one day, it will have to come from better modeling a person’s physical structure,” he added.

According to the team, such systems could help enable more widespread adoption of proton therapy centres, of which there are only about 100 globally.

“One reason that (proton therapy)is so expensive is because of the cost of installing the hardware,” said Vasisht who works at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

To test ReMix, Katabi’s group first implanted a small marker in animal tissues.

To track its movement, they used a wireless device that reflects radio signals at the patient, and a special algorithm to pinpoint the exact location of the marker.

The team used a wireless technology that they’ve previously demonstrated to detect heart rate, breathing and movement.

Interestingly, the marker inside the body does not need to transmit any wireless signal. It simply reflects the signal transmitted by a device outside the body, without needing a battery or any other external source of energy.

The ability to continuously sense inside the human body has largely been a distant dream.

“One of the roadblocks has been wireless communication to a device and its continuous localisation. ‘ReMix’ makes a leap in this direction by showing that the wireless component of implantable devices may no longer be the bottleneck,” said Romit Roy Choudhury, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at University of Illinois, who was not involved in the research.

The team would present the paper this week at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Data Communications (SIGCOMM) in Budapest, Turkey.(IANS)

German strikes bring public transport to standstill

Berlin: Nationwide union strikes in Germany brought train, bus, and airplane traffic to a virtual standstill, affecting millions of commuters with freight traffic also being heavily disrupted. All major airports...

Ailment of Namibian cheetah Sasha who died in MP first detected in January

Bhopal: Five-year-old female Namibian cheetah 'Sasha', who reportedly died due to serious renal (kidney related) on Monday, her ailment was first detected in the last week of January, three month...

Twitter ‘activist’ booked for posting misleading information

Lucknow: A 'Twitter activist' has been booked for posting misleading information about 'Make in UP' and 'Make in India' projects and denting the image of the state government and the...

Varanasi court issues notices to Akhilesh, Owaisi on Gyanvapi remark

Varanasi: The court of Additional District judge Anuradha Kushwaha has issued notices to defendants in the revision petition filed by a lawyer Hari Shankar Pandey, that seeks filing of a...

Hindu activists oppose Quran recitation at K’taka religious fair

Hassan (Karnataka): Ahead of the Assembly polls in Karnataka, Hindu activists have opposed the ritual of reciting the Quran during the historical Chennakeshava Rathotsava in Beluru town of Hassan district....

Bhojpuri singer booked for abetment to suicide of actress

Varanasi:  Police in Uttar Pradeh's Sarnath have registered a case against Bhojpuri singer Samar Singh and his brother Sanjay Singh under sections including abetment to suicide in the Akansha Dubey...

Tejashwi Yadav, wife welcome baby girl

Patna: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and his wife Rajshree became proud parents of a baby girl in New Delhi on Monday. While announcing the news on social media,...

Over 10% of Japanese children with Covid-related brain disease pass away

Tokyo: More than 10 per cent of Japanese youngsters who acquired acute brain syndrome after contracting Covid-19 have passed away, according to the findings of a recent national survey released...

2 people shot at Sikh temple in Sacramento

New York: Two people were critically injured when shots were fired during a parade at a Sikh temple in Sacramento, the state capital of California, authorities said. The shooting was...

Ten minors among 12 held for ‘pro-Amritpal’ posters in UP district

Rampur (UP): Twelve persons, including 10 minors, have been detained for allegedly putting up posters with slogans supporting absconding Khalistani sympathiser Amritpal Singh here. While the minors were released after...

Israel’s defence minister calls to halt judicial overhaul

Jerusalem: Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has called on the government to immediately halt its plan to overhaul the country's judiciary, citing a threat to national security. He is the...

Russia to place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus

Moscow: Russia will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, President Vladimir Putin has said, the media reported. President Putin said the move would not violate nuclear non-proliferation agreements and compared...

Read Previous

To denounce deforestation, Peruvian actor marries tree

Read Next

2 Haryana youths detained over attack on Umar Khalid

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com