The U.S. Patent Office has issued a patent to Mark DeCoster, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, for his invention of an electromagnetic probe used in medical devices.
Deoster and co-inventor Nicolas Bazan of the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, built the “Electromagnetic Probe Device,” at Louisiana Tech’s Institute for Micromanufacturing. The device is designed for use with magnetic materials, allowing for the movement of these materials to a desired location or for mixing in fluid fields.
According to DeCoster, the invention allows users to see the electromagnetic probe within the microscopic field, enabling them to more easily observe and position the probe in relation to the magnetic materials. Prior to this invention, researchers had to use fixed magnets which were hard to position, and often bulky.
Potential applications include catheters or other medical devices to direct magnetically-tagged medicines. “For example,” adds DeCoster, “magnetic nanoparticles linked to a drug could be directed using this device to fight cancer.”
Photo: Jon/Picasa
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