08:2020

1

36% said the pandemic had caused more than two months of interruption.

2

17% said it had been longer than one month.

3

17% said it had been less than one month.

4

30% did not experience disruption.

08:2020

SCIENTISTS REVEAL A FULLY TRANSPARENT SURGICAL MASK

The mask has been developed by researchers at Empa and EPFL and is the end product of two years of hard work. The idea behind the transparent ‘HelloMasks’ is to allow more personal contact and communication between healthcare professionals and patients. These masks also aim to overcome any issues with partially transparent masks, which tend to make it diffi cult for the wearer to breathe and often fog up easily. The fully transparent masks are made from a polymer which is developed specifi cally for this application. They are designed with small gaps to allow air to

EPFL ©

pass through, but to prevent pass through, but to prevent the transmission of viruses and bacteria. A biomass-based material is used to fabricate the masks, and Thierry Pelet, HelloMask project head, said: “We’ll keep working on them until they’re completely ecofriendly.” Completion of a CHF one million fundraising round has been announced, and the company are ready to develop the industrial process, with a planned market launch in early 2021. Researchers have created a start-up called HMCARE to market them, and initially the masks will be sold to the medical community.

Medtronic, has announced plans to acquire Medicrea, a company focused on transforming spinal surgery through artifi cial intelligence, predictive modelling, and patient specifi c implants. Medtronic believes that the partnership will strengthen the company’s position as a global innovator

Researchers 3D print a functioning human heart

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have 3D printed a functioning centimetre-scale human heart within the lab. To achieve this, the researchers used a diff erent approach, suggested by two Ph.D. students, Molly

Kupfer and Wei-Han Lin. “At fi rst, we tried 3D printing cardiomyocytes, and we failed, too. So, with our team’s expertise in stem cell research and 3D printing, we decided to try a new approach. We in enabling technologies and solutions for spine surgery. Jacob Paul, senior vice president and president of the Cranial & Spinal Technologies division at Medtronic, said: “Medtronic will become the fi rst company to be able to off er an integrated solution including artifi cial intelligence driven surgical planning, personalised optimised the specialised ink made from extracellular matrix proteins, combined the ink with human stem cells, and used the ink-plus-cells to 3D print the chambered structure. The stem cells were expanded to high cell densities in the structure fi rst, and then we diff erentiated them to the heart muscle cells,” said Brenda Ogle, lead researcher on the study. The research is published in the American Heart Association’s publication titled,

MEDTRONIC PLANS TO ACQUIRE MEDICREA

Medical device company,

Circulation Research. spinal implants and robotic assisted surgical delivery, which will signifi cantly benefi t our customers and their patients.” Denys Sournac, founder, chairman and CEO of Medicrea, added: “We are thrilled to be joining forces with Medtronic because we share a similar mission to restore the long-term quality of life for patients.”