Early diagnosis of sickle cell disease remains a major challenge, particularly in low-resource settings where access to centralized laboratories is limited. Conventional diagnostic techniques such as hemoglobin electrophoresis or HPLC are accurate but require expensive equipment, trained personnel, and long processing times. This gap...
Recreating the complex mechanical environment of the human lung alveoli in vitro has long been a challenge. Traditional lung-on-chip microfluidic models sometimes fail to fully capture the three-dimensional dynamics of breathing, often relying on overly simplified or non-physiological stretch patterns. Moreover, these systems typically...
Neutrophils, the most abundant immune cells in human blood, play a puzzling dual role in cancer. While some neutrophils (N1) attack tumor cells, others (N2) actually aid tumor progression by supporting invasion and metastasis. Translating insights from animal models to humans has been challenging...
Biofilms, dense microbial communities on medical devices and tissues, are notoriously resistant to antibiotics, causing persistent infections that account for many of chronic cases. Traditional lab methods often miss key aspects of biofilm behavior, including persistence, regrowth, and migration, making it difficult to design...
Skin diseases like atopic dermatitis and psoriasis have been linked to gut health, yet the mechanisms behind this gut–skin connection remain poorly understood. Clinical evidence suggests that an imbalance in gut microbes (dysbiosis) can disrupt the intestinal barrier, leading to skin inflammation. However, it...