Tiny implantable sensors are helping University of Oregon researchers optimize the process of recovery from severe bone injuries. Scientists at the UO’s Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact have developed miniature implantable sensors that transmit real-time data about what’s happening at an injury site. In a new study, they use the technology to show that a resistance-training rehabilitation program can significantly improve femur injuries in rats in just eight weeks.  

Last year, Penn State biomedical engineering researchers developed an ultrasound imaging technique to visualize the movement of a type of immune cell called a macrophage, which works to heal wounds and fight infections in the body. With a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, the team will now apply the technology to monitor the transport of genetically engineered, cancer-fighting macrophages into brain tumors. Simultaneously, they will use ultrasound to deliver drugs that increase the effectiveness of the macrophages, “supercharging” their potential to attack brain cancer cells. 

The shift from an awake state to unconsciousness is a phenomenon that has long captured the interest of scientists and philosophers alike, but how it happens has remained a mystery — until now. Through studies on rats, a team of researchers at Penn State has pinpointed the exact moment of loss of consciousness due to anesthesia, mapping what happens in different brain regions during that moment.  

The study has implications for humans as well as for other types of loss of consciousness, such as sleep, the researchers said. They published their results in Advanced Science.