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)

Air India acquires first Airbus A350-900 through finance lease

New Delhi: Air India on Friday said that it has acquired India’s first Airbus A350-900 aircraft through a finance lease transaction with HSBC. According to airline officials, the transaction makes...

Canada reports cyber attacks from Indian hackers

Toronto: With Canada-India relations worsening after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi of involvement in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey in June, various...

Guterres links Pakistan floods to ‘climate chaos’, makes appeal for aid

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has linked the devastating floods last year in Pakistan to “climate chaos” spurred by greenhouse gas emissions to make his case for aid to...

UP man beaten for wearing skull cap

Meerut (UP): A young man was allegedly thrashed by a group of people here for wearing a skull cap in a college campus where he had gone to deposit his...

First Saudi ambassador to Palestine arrives in West Bank

Ramallah: The first Saudi Ambassador to Palestine, Naif bin Bandar Al-Sudairi, arrived in the West Bank, media reported. Leading an official delegation, Al-Sudairi, the non-resident ambassador to Palestine and non-resident...

Allahabad HC asks UP govt to decide on sex change issue by Oct 18

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court has expressed dissatisfaction over the Uttar Pradesh government not framing guidelines as per the 2014 Supreme Court judgment that recognised transgender individuals as the ‘third...

Nepal says it’s against Taiwan’s ‘independence’

Kathmandu: Echoing China's stance, Nepal on Tuesday said that it was against the “independence" of Taiwan. The Nepali side reiterated its firm commitment to the One-China principle, according to the...

Fresh spell of heavy rainfall likely over East India from Sep 29: IMD

New Delhi: The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday said that conditions are becoming favourable for further withdrawal of Southwest Monsoon from some more parts of northwest and adjoining western India...

BRS warns of southern uprise over delimitation on basis of population

Hyderabad: There will be a southern uprise if the representation of South Indians comes down in Parliament due to proposed delimitation on the basis of population, warned Bharat Rashtra Samithi...

INDIA bloc doesn’t want a Muslim face to emerge in national politics: AIUDF

Guwahati: Days after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi dismissed possibilities of forging an alliance with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam, the party has alleged that the INDIA...

Haryana Police yet to get Monu Manesar’s custody due to security reason

Gurugram: Due to a lack of security by the Rajasthan Police to guard Monu Manesar from Rajasthan to Gurugram, the Haryana Police is yet to get custody of the prime...

Twist in B’luru love jihad case, woman techie enacted drama as boyfriend dumped her, say police

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru love jihad case alleged by a woman techie against her former boyfriend, also a software engineer from Jammu and Kashmir, turned out to be a drama enacted...

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