Volume 1 Issue 1, January 2017

Shorter regulatory review times for high-risk cardiovascular devices correlate with the likelihood of reports of adverse events.

The increasing integration of wearable technologies with the human body raises neural and cognitive challenges and opportunities.

Solid stress within tumours can be quantified by measuring their deformation after cutting, slicing or taking a needle biopsy of them.

A chemically defined protocol requiring no animal-derived components allows for the easier derivation and enduring expansion of epicardial cells from human pluripotent stem cells.

Intravital microscopy reveals how giant cells and neovascularization drive the fibrotic encapsulation of biomaterials implanted in live animals.

A 20 cent centrifuge made of paper and string and operated by hand can separate plasma from blood in about 90 seconds.

Nanoprobes that fluoresce only when activated by the acidic environment in tumours may make a universal imaging agent for cancer surgery.

Conjugation of a diabetes drug with a brush polymer reduces the reactivity of the drug conjugate towards pre-existing polymer antibodies in human plasma and improves the drug's performance in diabetic mice.

A self-adjusting synthetic gene circuit senses and reverses insulin resistance in animal models of diabetes and obesity.

This Review provides a broad account of the applications of light in imaging, diagnosis, therapy and surgery, and discusses the promise of emerging light-based technologies.

This Review covers recent progress on near-infrared fluorescence imaging for preclinical animal studies and clinical diagnostics and interventions.

Conjugation of exendin-4 — a drug to treat type 2 diabetes — with a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based brush polymer reduces the conjugate's reactivity towards anti-PEG antibodies and leads to lower blood glucose levels in mice for up to 5 days after a single injection.

Three methods for releasing solid stress in tumours provide two–dimensional mappings, sensitive estimates and in situ quantification of stress-induced tumour deformations — and thus stored elastic energy — via ultrasonography or optical microscopy.

TGF-β-signalling inhibitors allow for the long-term expansion of epicardial cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells by means of the temporal modulation of canonical Wnt signalling under chemically defined xeno-free conditions.

A self-adjusting synthetic gene circuit in implanted mammalian cells senses insulin concentration and reverses the insulin-resistance syndrome in three mouse models by coordinating the expression of the insulin-sensitizing compound adiponectin.

A fluorescent nanoprobe that amplifies the fluorescent signal in a broad range of tumours allows for real-time tumour-acidosis-guided detection and surgery of occult, less-than-1-mm³ nodules in mice bearing head and neck or breast tumours.

Mediated by neovascularization, macrophages and giant cells drive the fibrotic encapsulation of implanted porous polymer scaffolds, as revealed by nonlinear intravital three-dimensional microscopy.

A hand-powered centrifuge made of two paper discs, string and wooden handles is shown to achieve rotational speeds of 125,000 r.p.m., separate pure plasma from whole blood in less than 1.5 minutes and isolate malaria parasites in 15 minutes.

A hand-spun centrifuge made of paper and string can separate plasma from whole blood in less than two minutes, and be used to diagnose malaria and other infectious diseases in areas without laboratory resources or electricity.