Medical
Investigating the need for a Splayer device to reduce hand
Inventor: Mr. Amit Agrawal, Consultant Oncoplastic and Reconstructive Breast Surgeon, Cambridge University Hospitals During breast surgery, the skin needs to be retracted for a period of time and then put back in place. Traditionally this is done either with a metal and plastic retractor or with the surgeon’s own fingers, but this can be very…
Assessing the best markets for a new way of measuring
Inventors: Dr. Isaac Johnson, CRUK & Verinnogen, and Mike Irvine, Verinnogen Mentor: Dr. Elena de Orbe, i-Teams alumni Many experiments and treatments rely on measuring and monitoring the sizes of three-dimensional structures in the body. Typically tumours are measured using two caliper-based measurements, which are then used to provide an estimate of the three-dimensional volume,…
Identifying new applications for continuous monitoring of bodily fluids
Inventors: Dr. Farah Alimagham, Dr. Keri Carpenter & Dr. Tanya Hutter, Clinical Neurosciences Publication: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.analchem.1c01149 The brains of patients suffering from traumatic brain injury undergo rapid chemical changes in the first days following the initial trauma. Accurate and timely monitoring of these changes is important for improving patient outcomes. Conventionally this is done by collecting…
Exploring the use of VR systems in helping autistic children
Inventor: Bang Ming Yong, Institute for Manufacturing Mentor: TBC The inventor has been working with Virtual Reality (VR) systems over the past 4 years, investigating their use in a variety of scenarios. More recently he has been working on the use of VR to help with training approaches to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in partnership…
Developing tools for early-stage cancer diagnosis
Inventors: Ulrich Keyser, Mohamed Alawami, Max Zhu, Kaikai Chen, Cambridge Nucleomics Mentor: TBC Cambridge Nucleomics is a new university spin-out company based on technologies developed at the Keyser Lab in the Cavendish Laboratory. Using a combination of nanopores and single-molecule barcoding, the system is able to detect and count single molecules of DNA or RNA…
Using wearable technology to improve the ergonomics and postural awareness
Inventors: Dr. Brandon Smith & Ms. Stasa Stumpa, Clinical Neuroscience and Surgeonomic Mentor: TBC Since the dawn of surgical practice as we know it today, innovations to improve patient outcomes have been rife - from new instruments and robotics, to intra operative visualisation, to sterility and patient-support equipment to ensure comfort and wellbeing during and…
TumourVue – improving the accuracy of cancer surgery
Inventor: Dr Gita Khalili Moghaddam, Clinical Neurosciences Mentor: Bob Pettigrew The TumourVue device is designed to improve outcomes for cancer patients undergoing surgery by allowing the surgeon to identify the edges of the tumour more precisely in theatre, thus preserving as much healthy tissue as possible. A first working prototype has already been built to…
Identifying the best markets for an AI-driven medical research management
Inventor: Dr Amber Hill, Research Grid Mentor: Dr. Cathy Boucher Medical research activities including early research and clinical trials have a high administrative burden and often require patient/public involvement and engagement. These must be carried out in a structured and specific way to gather relevant and useful data. These processes are manually-intensive, time-consuming and expensive…
Investigating uses for a new type of polymeric valve, including
Inventors: Dr. Marta Serrani & Professor Geoff Moggridge, Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology Mentor: Bill Matthews The inventors have developed a new type of polymeric material which has high durability and specific mechanical properties, being stiff in one direction and flexible in another. The bio-compatible materials can be manufactured easily using standard industrial methods and are…