Accessible Prosthetic Arms: Victoria Hand Project and The Impact of 3D Printing.

Victoria Hand Project (VHP) is a Canadian charity with a mission to provide 3D printed prosthetic arms to people in-need across the world, by partnering with prosthetic care providers. This article explores the journey of VHP, sharing insights, lessons learned, ongoing directions, and the impact of 3D printing on prosthetic care for people with upper-limb amputation. Benefits such as affordability and customization are explored, as well as the challenges encountered, including quality control and the steep learning curve associated with working in the digital 3D space.

An integrated microfluidic chip for immunomagnetic detection and isolation of rare prostate cancer cells from blood.

The quantitative and qualitative analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has the potential to improve the clinical management of several cancers, including prostate cancer. As such, there is much interest in the isolation of CTCs from the peripheral blood of cancer patients. We report the design, fabrication, and proof-of-principle testing of an integrated permalloy-based microfluidic chip for immunomagnetic isolation of blood-borne prostate cancer cells using an antibody targeting prostate surface membrane antigen (PSMA).

In vivo estimation of flexor digitorum superficialis tendon displacement with speckle tracking on 2-D ultrasound images using Laplacian, Gaussian and Rayleigh techniques.

This study applies 2-D speckle tracking using B-scan ultrasound imaging to estimate the instantaneous and total displacement of the middle flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) tendon proximal to the wrist. This is achieved by performing the study with human patients, during regular carpal tunnel surgeries. B-Scan images were collected with a 12-MHz transducer placed proximal to the wrist, while a video microscope simultaneously imaged the exposed flexor tendons in the palm as a reference for validation.

Localized, macromolecular transport for thin, adherent, single cells via an automated, single cell electroporation biomanipulator.

Single cell electroporation (SCE), via microcapillary, is an effective method for molecular, transmembrane transport used to gain insight on cell processes with minimal preparation. Although possessing great potential, SCE is difficult to execute and the technology spans broad fields within cell biology and engineering. The technical complexities, the focus and expertise demanded during manual operation, and the lack of an automated SCE platform limit the widespread use of this technique, thus the potential of SCE has not been realized.

Doppler ultrasound-based measurement of tendon velocity and displacement for application toward detecting user-intended motion.

The motivation of this research is to non-invasively monitor the wrist tendon's displacement and velocity, for purposes of controlling a prosthetic device. This feasibility study aims to determine if the proposed technique using Doppler ultrasound is able to accurately estimate the tendon's instantaneous velocity and displacement. This study is conducted with a tendon mimicking experiment consisting of two different materials: a commercial ultrasound scanner, and a reference linear motion stage set-up.