Improving Medicine with Physics

Physics-driven innovations in medicine have produced countless life-saving technologies, from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound machines to radiation therapy and laser surgery. The next generation of medical devices are right around the corner, and several promising examples will be presented at the 2020 American Physical Society March Meeting in Denver.

Magnetic Control of Blood Flow

Left untreated, high blood pressure can lead to dangerous complications like heart attack or stroke. Blood pressure is typically controlled through a combination of diet, exercise, and medication. A strong magnetic field could also help, according to Temple University physicist Rongjia Tao.

“We know that hypertension is a really serious issue worldwide, and it comes from two issues: one is high blood viscosity, and the other is turbulence in blood flow,” said Tao. “If we apply a strong magnetic field parallel to blood flow, the red blood cells will aggregate into short chains. These chains become streamlined, blood viscosity is reduced, and turbulence is suppressed.”

Tao has invented a non-invasive treatment that immediately reduces elevated blood pressure to normal levels. He will present results from his device, which includes an annular magnet that encircles a patient’s arm and has been tested on more than 250 people with hypertension.

Disease-Fighting “Backpacks”

Immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of some types of cancer. For example, adoptive cell transfer can enhance the disease-fighting abilities of a patient’s own immune cells.

“That’s been a very powerful strategy, and it has led to a lot of remarkable outcomes in, for example, cancer therapy,” said biomedical engineer Wyatt Shields. However, the technique has mostly been limited to T cells that require tumor-specific antigens.

Shields will present a class of particles known as “backpacks” that may enable adoptive cell transfer to treat a broader range of diseases. Instead of binding to T cells, the backpacks bind to macrophages–the jack-of-all-trades of the immune system. His presentation will cover experimental results conducted in vitro and in mouse models of cancer.

Carbon-Based Electronics

Human diseases are commonly studied in other animals, but the results do not always translate. Organic electronics, which are made of carbon-based polymers and plastics, could bridge the gap. University of Cambridge biochemist Ro?isi?n Owens will present her work on organic electronics as biosensors and models of biological systems.

“One of our most recent innovations has been to develop 3D sponge-like electrodes that are soft and compatible with aqueous environments,” said Owens. “We use these as templates for tissue growth, building up complex human tissues. We are currently working on a 3D model of the human gut.”

In addition to acting as a scaffold, the electrodes measure changes in conductivity, which provides information about how the cells are growing and behaving in real time. Owens has also developed biomimetic models of cell membranes that can monitor changes when, for instance, a drug is delivered.

Laser Drug Delivery

Needle-free injection is an emerging form of drug delivery that forcefully pushes medicine into the skin. The lack of a hypodermic needle avoids needle-stick injuries, which put healthcare workers at risk of accidental infection. Pankaj Rohilla, a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas Tech University, is working on a needle-free drug delivery system that uses a laser pulse to create a high speed liquid jet.

“Our focus is on the feasibility of these microjets for needle-free jet injections, for which we have conducted ex vivo and in vitro studies with liquids in a wide viscosity range,” said Rohilla. “The motivation is to find new ways to generate high-speed liquid jets which can be used in vaccine delivery.”

The system can push a small amount of liquid into biological tissue at very high jet tip speed (100-300 m/s) with a jet diameter of only 50 to 100 microns. He will discuss how the jet generation system works and present experimental results on the effect of various parameters related to the jet generation system on the delivery inside different skin models, such as gelatin gel and porcine tissue.

Quantitative MRI

While much of today’s MRI data cannot be compared across scanners, individuals, and time periods, American College of Radiology researcher Michael Boss aims to create a more quantitative, standardized practice. He believes focusing on quantitative imaging biomarkers–physical quantities like temperature, magnetic susceptibility, and water diffusion constants–can improve the reliability of MRI and lead to better clinical results.

“There is a tremendous interest to understand brain injury, recovery, and neurodegenerative disease, and techniques like diffusion MRI have a lot of power,” said Boss. “But you need to have a strong metrology to support it, otherwise you’re making measurements in the dark.”

His talk will cover how quantitative imaging biomarkers like water diffusion constants are measured, the clinical utility of such biomarkers, and the physics behind quantitative MRI.

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Optimize The Blood Flow In Blood Vessels By Magnet Field To Cure Hypertension
TIME/DATE/PLACE: 10:48 AM-11:00 AM, Monday, March 2, 2020, Room: 113
CONTACT: Rongjia Tao,

[email protected]

Durable Control of Macrophage Polarizations with Backpacks
TIME/DATE/PLACE: 3:30 PM-3:42 PM, Wednesday, March 4, 2020, Room: 403
CONTACT: Wyatt Shields,

[email protected]

Adapting organic electronics to biology (and not vice versa!)
TIME/DATE/PLACE: 10:24 AM-11:00 AM, Friday, March 6, 2020, Room: Four Seasons 4
CONTACT: Róisín Owens,

[email protected]

Laser Induced Jets in Needle Free Drug Delivery
TIME/DATE/PLACE: 9:24 AM-9:36 AM, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, Room: 113
CONTACT: Pankaj Rohilla,

[email protected]

Better Medicine through Measurement: Developments and Applications of Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
TIME/DATE/PLACE: 4:54 PM-5:30 PM, Monday, March 2, 2020, Room: 405-407
CONTACT: Michael Boss,

[email protected]

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