Freeing the Animal Model: A Modular, Wirelessly Powered, Implantable Electronic Platform.

Summary: Fully implantable electronic devices in freely roaming animal models are useful in biomedical research, but their development is prohibitively resource intensive for many laboratories. The advent of miniaturized microcontrollers with onboard wireless data exchange capabilities has enabled cost-efficient development of myriad do-it-yourself electronic devices that are easily customizable with open-source software ( https://www.arduino.

A gut-secreted peptide suppresses arousability from sleep.

Suppressing sensory arousal is critical for sleep, with deeper sleep requiring stronger sensory suppression. The mechanisms that enable sleeping animals to largely ignore their surroundings are not well understood. We show that the responsiveness of sleeping flies and mice to mechanical vibrations is better suppressed when the diet is protein rich.

De Novo Powered Air-Purifying Respirator Design and Fabrication for Pandemic Response.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 and disruption of normal supply chains has resulted in severe shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly devices with few suppliers such as powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs). A scarcity of information describing design and performance criteria for PAPRs represents a substantial barrier to mitigating shortages. We sought to apply open-source product development (OSPD) to PAPRs to enable alternative sources of supply and further innovation.

De novo Powered Air-Purifying Respirator Design and Fabrication for Pandemic Response.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 and disruption of normal supply chains resulted in severe shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly devices with few suppliers such as powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs). A scarcity of information describing design and performance criteria represents a substantial barrier to new approaches to address these shortages. We sought to apply open-source product development to PAPRs to enable alternative sources of supply and further innovation.

Implantable wireless device for study of entrapment neuropathy.

Background: Disease processes causing increased neural compartment pressure may induce transient or permanent neural dysfunction. Surgical decompression can prevent and reverse such nerve damage. Owing to insufficient evidence from controlled studies, the efficacy and optimal timing of decompression surgery remains poorly characterized for several entrapment syndromes.

Detection of membrane-bound and soluble antigens by magnetic levitation.

Magnetic levitation is a technique for measuring the density and the magnetic properties of objects suspended in a paramagnetic field. We describe a novel magnetic levitation-based method that can specifically detect cell membrane-bound and soluble antigens by measurable changes in levitation height that result from the formation of antibody-coated bead and antigen complex. We demonstrate our method's ability to sensitively detect an array of membrane-bound and soluble antigens found in blood, including T-cell antigen CD3, eosinophil antigen Siglec-8, red blood cell antigens CD35 and RhD, red blood cell-bound Epstein-Barr viral particles, and soluble IL-6, and validate the results by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy performed in parallel.

Detection and quantification of subtle changes in red blood cell density using a cell phone.

Magnetic levitation has emerged as a technique that offers the ability to differentiate between cells with different densities. We have developed a magnetic levitation system for this purpose that distinguishes not only different cell types but also density differences in cells of the same type. This small-scale system suspends cells in a paramagnetic medium in a capillary placed between two rare earth magnets, and cells levitate to an equilibrium position determined solely by their density.

Cascaded optical parametric oscillation with a dual-grating periodically poled lithium niobate crystal.

We demonstrate continuous-wave cascaded optical parametric oscillation in which the signal field of the primary parametric oscillator internally pumps the secondary parametric oscillator. Wavelength tuning is achieved with temperature tuning and a fan-out grating structure of a dual-grating periodically poled lithium niobate crystal. Above the secondary threshold the primary signal power is clamped, and all the other output powers increase linearly with the input pump power, in accordance with theory.