The world of NBIC is advancing so rapidly that it is almost impossible to keep up with all of the activities. The following is but a microcosm of the amazing stuff that is happening.

» Patent for human skin - On June 23, 2004, Microsoft was awarded patent number 6,754.472 for using human skin as a power conduit and data bus. The purpose is to be able for devices like watches, pagers, PDAs and such to share things like a single speaker. Interesting to note that IBM demonstrated a device the size of a pack of playing cards which allowed two people to exchange business cards just by shaking hands – and it did this in 1996.

» Brain implants - After ten years development at Brown University, the Cyberkinetics BrainGate™ neural interface device is intended to provide severely disabled patients with a permanent, direct and reliable interface to a personal computer. Pending continued success and regulatory approval by the Food and Drug Administration, the company intends to initiate a pilot clinical trial this year, 2004. Plans for this trial involve implantation of a BrainGate™ device in severely disabled patients which will allow signals from the motor cortex to be collected, processed and analyzed, eventually producing an interface with a personal computer. It should afford these patients the opportunity to use the computer as a gateway to communicate and control simple devices in their immediate environment. Eventually,  they hope to be able to allow severely communications-challenged  people to "brain-type" up to 30 words per minute.
     Similarly, Researchers at Butler Hospital in Providence are completing the largest study to date of a brain pacemaker type of device (implanted computer with electrodes connected to the brain) with potential to alleviate mental illness, involving patients with severe, intractable obsessive compulsive disorder.

» Brain Prothesis - The world’s first brain prosthesis has passed the first stages of live testing (Oct., 2004). The microchip, designed to model a part of the brain called the hippocampus (vital for forming memories), has been used successfully to replace a neural circuit in slices of rat brain tissue kept alive in a dish. The prosthesis will soon be ready for testing in live animals.
The device could ultimately be used to replace damaged brain tissue which may have been destroyed in an accident, during a stroke, or by neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. It is the first attempt to replace central brain regions dealing with cognitive functions such as learning or speech. 
The system reads real neural signals from healthy tissue, process them just as the lost brain tissue should, and passes on the resulting signals to the next brain area. The developer says  “It proves you can take out a piece of a central brain region - a piece with real clinical interest - replace it with a chip, and get it to operate as it did before.

» Three parents? - Scientists in the UK are applying for a license to create children with three genetic parents. The aim is to prevent the children from inheriting genetic diseases caused by mutations in DNA housed by their mitochondria - components of cells which produce energy. The application will be decided upon by the UK's regulatory body, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, before year end 2004. The procedure would involve fertilizing a woman's egg by in-vitro fertilization outside the body and transplanting the fertilized nucleus to an egg from another woman which has had its nucleus removed. Any child born following implantation would have cells containing a nucleus with genes from both parents, and mitochondria from a woman other than their mother.

» DNA Doctors - The New York Times, April 2004 reported that scientists have developed what they say could become the world's smallest medical kit: a computer made of DNA that can diagnose disease and automatically dispense medicine to treat it. The computer, so small that one trillion would fit into a drop of water. Although it now works only in a test tube it offers an intriguing glimpse of a future in which molecular machines operate inside people, spotting diseases and treating them before noticeable symptoms even appear.

» Artificial Heart - The Food and Drug Administration said November 15, 2004 it has approved the first temporary artificial heart for use in patients at risk of dying within 30 days as they await a heart transplant. The CardioWest Total Artificial Heart, manufactured by SynCardia Systems of Tucson, Arizona, takes over for the patient's failing heart, restoring normal blood pressure and shoring up such vital organs as the kidney and liver. The "bridge" device is intended to help keep patients alive long enough for a heart transplant.
The heart is implanted in the patient's chest to replace the bottom half of the heart. It's sewn to the remaining top half of the heart. Tubes connect the device to a console that supplies power and monitors the device's function. The cost of the device and its components is about $100,000.

» Electronic noses - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have completed several studies that they say demonstrate the promise of a hand-held "electronic nose" for diagnosing pneumonia and sinusitis by analyzing a patient's exhaled breath. The doctors believe the device could make it faster, easier and cheaper to spot some respiratory diseases and, as a result, reduce unnecessary prescription of antibiotics. Another benefit is the speed of the electronic proboscis. It takes around 40 minutes to complete its pneumonia test, while traditional X-ray and saliva tests can take hours or days.
The e-nose, aptly dubbed the Cyranose 320 by its maker, Cyrano Sciences Inc., is slightly larger than a cell phone, costs about $8,000 and has 32 pinhead-sized receptors that can digitally analyze and identify a wide range of chemical signatures through its wand-shaped sniffer. (Cyranose was recently featured on the TV show CSI.)

 » Kidney in a cartridge - Patients in this study were "plugged-in," to a cartridge about the same size as an in-line water filter, which contained a billion living kidney cells housed within 4,000 hollow plastic fibers. University of Michigan's Dr. David Humes small clinical studies have shown that 60% of critically ill patients survived while only 10% - 20% of that group would have been expected to survive conventional treatment with a normal dialysis machine.

» Working kidney grown in mouse - New Scientist, July, 2004, Complete working kidneys have been grown in mice using stem cells derived from human and pig fetuses. If the feat can be repeated in humans, it will allow doctors to replace damaged organs without the need for a donor. Embryonic stem cells are also able to adapt to their host, reducing the chance that they will be rejected later in development. The kidneys functioned well enough to produce dilute urine.

» Contact lens displays - November, 2003, researchers at Harvard University demonstrated for the first time that they can easily apply a film of tiny, high-performance silicon nanowires to glass and plastic. According to them, the development could lead to such products as disposable computers and optical displays that can be worn in your clothes or contact lenses.

» Implantable contact lens - An implantable contact lens that corrects vision in nearsighted patients has proven to be safe and not have some of the side-effects of laser surgery. The company that manufactures the devices said its lens corrected the vision of 95 percent of patients to 20/40 or better, and 60 percent had 20/20 vision. The lens was implanted in 526 eyes of nearly 294 patients.

» Cancer cures - The  Center for Biologic Nanotechnology is developing a nanotechnological replacement for chemotherapy. Tiny devices called 'tecto-dendrimers' that are able to swim through the bloodstream, identify cancer cells and give them a lethal dose of toxin while leaving normal cells untouched. The Center is conducting tests of these dendrimers as components of nano-devices. It is building a library of dendrimeric components from which a combinatoric number of nano-devices can be made. The library will contain components which will perform: Diseased cell recognition, Diagnosis of disease state, Drug delivery, Reporting location, and Reporting outcome of therapy. Currently the Center has completed the construction of 4 of these 5 components and prototyping the 5th. These are proof-of-concept functioning components and have been tested and perform as expected. This testing has been going on since 2000.

» Another cancer cure - Nanoparticles may be used to deliver heat to cancer cells to kill them. MagForce Technologies, based in Berlin, coats iron oxide nanoparticles with a compound that is a nutrient for tumor cells, which then ingest the particles. When an external magnetic field causes the particles to vibrate rapidly, the tumor cells are killed and then flushed from the body by its natural scavenger cells, according to MagForce's research results. It expects regulatory approval to sell the particles and its treatment machinery in Germany in 2006 after more extensive clinical trials have been completed.

» Artificial spinal cord - Researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., have designed artificial molecules that form log-like structures that the researchers think could be used to create a piece of artificial spinal cord to help paralyzed patients regain some mobility. The log structures would act as a scaffold around which spinal-cord tissue or bone tissue could regenerate.

» Building organs - Scientists have built a minute functioning vascular system, the branching network of blood vessels which supply nutrients and oxygen to tissues. This is a significant step towards building whole organs. Conventional tissue engineering methods have successfully grown structural tissues such as skin and cartilage in the lab. Now, researchers from MIT and Harvard Medical School have used computers to design branching networks of venous and arterial capillaries. The one-layer systems of kidney and liver cells were successfully implanted into rats for two weeks with a 95% survival rate. The plan is to replace whole organs in humans within the next ten to fifteen years. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993916

» Another organ building approach - Researchers at the University of Missouri recently demonstrated a process that one day may enable ink-jet printed human organs to be formed using cells donated by the person receiving the organ, to ensure biocompatibility. The experiments, involved the use of biological "cues" to enable successful self-assembly of designer tissue. The three-dimensional hollow biological tubes and organ 'modules,' could be used as grafts or for doing research. An ink-jet printer was retrofitted for "bio ink," composed of multicellular assemblies, called spherical cell aggregates, which can be printed onto special bio gels. After each layer of cells is printed, an intervening layer of gel is laid down. As a result, the cell aggregates are stacked into a hollow tube configuration. Chemicals are used to coax the cells into fusing into a tube after the gel is dissolved. The university is applying for a patent on the bio ink process in preparation for partnering with a commercial company to produce working human organs from donor cells.

» DNA Chip - Two genetic experts have developed the "NanoGeneseq Chip" which analyses the future genetic proposition of a human at birth. In layman terms the computer can, to almost 100 percent accuracy, predict how a child will grow from its height, color, and other physical attributes. The chip analyses the DNA samples of newborns, taken either from blood, spinal cord or saliva. The DNA can be analyzed to sort out diseases that may occur during the child's lifespan. The product was expected to be ready for commercialization during 2004.

» Site for the blind - A Tokyo physician has developed a procedure allowing doctors to grow an entire cornea from a tiny speck of cells in a petri dish in an incubator, peel it off at room temperature, and place it directly on the eye, without a single stitch. The experimental procedure was first performed on a human in December 2002, and a total of 12 people have undergone it to replace a cornea, which is the transparent tissue that covers the iris and pupil at the front of the eye. The transplants are still working in all of the patients. Although individual strength of vision varied widely, all 12 patients who had been legally blind, could see after the procedure.

» Electronic knee - Researchers at the Scripps Center for Orthopaedic Research and Education have developed the world's first electronic knee. In 1999, the center director designed the device, which contains electronic sensors that can transmit data wirelessly, and implanted it in a San Diego patient after four years of safety tests. The patient is monitored every few weeks by connecting the device to a computer to gather real-time information from inside the knee. Researchers hope to use the device to test whether high impact activities, such as jogging, are safe for orthopaedic patients.

» Computerized legs - Two men paralyzed on one side of their body can walk again, thanks to an ingenious implant that uses signals from a healthy leg to control a paralyzed one. Muscle sensors monitor signals from the patient's able leg and are used to trigger pre-programmed electrical impulses in 11 electrodes implanted near nerves in the paralyzed leg. This lets the paralyzed leg do what the patient wants it to do, by taking its cue from the good leg. Both men had been paralyzed by strokes and previously neither could walk unaided. After sensors were placed over certain muscle groups on the healthy leg and stimulators implanted in the paralyzed leg, they can now walk, stand, and sit.

» Pills that monitor - Performance Software Corp. is developing "ad hoc network-centric physiological monitors" These are Tic-Tac-sized pills that would monitor everything from core body temperature to hydration levels, chemical toxicities, and more. In the future, the pills could be used with other technologies, such as an external monitor for heart rate, a pressure sensor in the sole of a shoe, or a helmet-mounted infrared camera, to comprise "personal area networks" -- systems that aggregate data and transmit it to a central computer. Performance hopes to have a prototype running within the next year. It envisions football coaches checking in on overheating players from the sidelines, fire chiefs monitoring firefighters from outside a burning building, army medics scanning soldiers' vital stats from remote command centers, or physicians collecting information about the body's chemistry following surgery. The cost: ultimately, perhaps a dollar apiece.

» More smart pills - Gastroenterologists at Beverly Hospital (Mass.) have been using computerized capsules from Given Imaging to detect small bowel disorders in patients. Patients swallow the capsule on an empty stomach, and the images are transmitted to a portable hard drive worn around the waist. The hard drive has wire leads connected to the chest and abdomen to monitor upper-body activity. The hospital sees them as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for determining where intestinal bleeding is coming from. Equipped with a built-in camera and light-emitting diodes to illuminate intestinal lining, the capsule can take up to 60,000 images of a patient's intestinal tract in eight hours.

» Satellite control for pills - A satellite-controlled pill dispenser developed during 2002 could help patients who have trouble remembering to take medication. The system, which also creates electronic records so that pharmacists and doctors can see which pills have been taken and when, is intended for patients at home, school, assisted-living centers and in prisons. Based on a timer or a doctor's remote control command, the box flashes and beeps when it is time for a patient to take a pill. Patients then push a button on the device to dispense drugs from refillable cartridges inside the box. Physicians and pharmacists can use the system's software and wireless communication connection to change a patient's therapy. Two hundred of these are currently in use.

» Artificial pancreas - The artificial implantable pancreas is currently about the size of a half dollar and could be used in place of daily insulin injections for diabetics to control their blood sugar levels. Successful short-term results have been displayed in diabetic rats. Cells are grown on chemically modified silicon, used to create a container of silicon membrane covered in tiny pores. These pores, which are a billionth of a meter wide, allow glucose, insulin and oxygen to pass through, while blocking larger, harmful immune cells.

» Smart phones - A software program that generates an animated face synchronized with speech has been developed and can be installed on a regular computer and use a standard phone line. The software allows the hard of hearing to lip read while hearing the person they are talking to at the same time, a technique that is showing enormous potential in bringing down communications barriers for the hard of hearing. It makes talking on the phone almost as natural for people with hearing problems as holding a face-to-face conversation. The software contains a speech recognizer that converts the audio signal into the lip movements of the animated face on a PC screen.

» Thought scanner - The University of Illinois at Chicago unveiled the world's most powerful magnetic resonance imaging machine for human studies, capable of imaging not just the anatomy but metabolism within the brain. This advanced technology uses a 9.4-tesla magnet, (current standard is 1.5 tesla and 9.4 is more than 100,000 times stronger than the earth's magnetic field). It will enable researchers to detect signals from sodium, phosphorus, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen - the metabolic building blocks of brain function and human thought. It will also enable them to better understand how the human brain thinks, learns, fights disease, and responds to experimental therapies. Manufacturer GE says this is a "technological leap forward is as revolutionary to the medical community as the transition from radio to television was for society".

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Stay tuned . . .