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Health & medical

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A female biomedical engineer standing next to an elephant with a prosthetic foot in an elephant sanctuary, surrounded by trees.
  • Health & medical
  • How I got here

5 things I learned on my biomedical engineering journey

Kirsty Carlyle wanted a career that would make a difference. She married her love of physics and design with her interest in medicine to become a biomedical engineer, and is now doing a PhD in partial hand prosthetics. Kirsty shared five things she’s learned along the way.

Quick read

A man sitting at a table, holding a prototype of a prosthetic hand based on the classic 'split hook' style
  • Design & manufacturing
  • Health & medical
  • Innovation Watch
  • Issue 95

Making prosthetics without compromise

Prosthetics for upper limb differences often involve a choice between something user-friendly and affordable, or aesthetically pleasing. University of Strathclyde-based startup Metacarpal is trying to bring all three elements together with a new body-powered prosthetic hand.

Quick read

A computer display, whose interface can guide a robotic arm with a magnetic appendage above a model of the colon.
  • Health & medical
  • Technology & robotics
  • Innovation Watch
  • Issue 94

Perfecting pain-free colonoscopies

Researchers are developing magnetically guided robotic instruments to make colonoscopies less painful for patients.

Quick read

  • Civil & structural
  • Health & medical
  • Innovation Watch

The startup purifying water in partnership with low-income communities

Access to clean water is a fundamental human need, yet hundreds of millions worldwide go without it. Cambridge-based social enterprise Blue Tap has one solution – a low-cost device that purifies water by precisely injecting chlorine into a local water supply.
Two men stand either side of a dialysis machine
  • Health & medical
  • Profiles
  • Issue 93

The journey to portable dialysis

Professor Clive Buckberry FREng believes that successful engineering needs an injection of artistic thinking, along with a dose of physics and the ability to use pictures to make a point.

Quick read

White-painted ventilation pipework against a white ceiling.
  • Civil & structural
  • Health & medical
  • Opinion
  • Issue 90

Better buildings need a breath of fresh air

Post-COVID-19, how do we stay safe in winter without throwing open all the windows and cranking up the radiators to max?

A microscopy image of fluorescently stained cancer cells proliferating in a culture dish.
  • Health & medical
  • Issue 90

Could organ-on-a-chip technology replace animal testing?

Move over, humble Petri dish. Bioengineers are taking inspiration from electronics manufacturing to make more realistic environments to test new drugs in.
Two ballet dancers dancing in DNANudge's brightly decorated pop up shop.
  • Health & medical
  • Issue 90

How lab-on-a-chip tech brought rapid genetic testing to the public

A technology pivot accelerated the return of the Royal Ballet and other cultural institutions during the height of the pandemic, thanks to rapid DNA-turned-COVID-19 testing.

Quick read

  • Chemical
  • Health & medical
  • How does that work?
  • Issue 89

Wastewater epidemiology

Sampling and testing of wastewater is helping governments across the world to track COVID-19 infections on a large scale.

Quick read

  • Health & medical
  • Design & manufacturing
  • How does that work?
  • Issue 87

Lateral flow tests

During the pandemic, millions of people took lateral flow tests every week to detect COVID-19, enabling them to get a result in just 15 minutes.