Tag: University of Washington

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These sensors could widen Internet of Things

Skin sensor patch
This flexible epidermal patch prototype successfully transmitted information across a 3,300-square-foot atrium. Such a patch could be used to collect and wirelessly transmit medical data. (University of Washington Photo / Dennis Wise)

Researchers at the University of Washington have been working for years on a radio backscatter system that can monitor ultra-low-power sensors wirelessly, and now they’ve fine-tuned the system to pick up signals from more than a mile away.

They say the technology could lead to “smart” contact lenses and skin patches that can track your vital signs and send in the data for instant medical analysis.

And that’s not all: Long-range backscatter sensors might well open up whole new frontiers for the Internet of Things.

“People have been talking about embedding connectivity into everyday objects such as laundry detergent, paper towels and coffee cups for years, but the problem is the cost and power consumption to achieve this,” Vamsi Talla, chief technology officer of Jeeva Wireless, said today in a UW news release. “This is the first wireless system that can inject connectivity into any device with very minimal cost.”

Jeeva Wireless, which was founded by Talla and other UW researchers, is aiming to commercialize the technology within the next few months.

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Smartphone selfie system seeks cancer signs

Smartphone selfie system
A 3-D-printed viewing box holds a smartphone in place to take a picture of the user’s eyes. The BiliScreen app analyzes the eye image to look for signs of jaundice, which could point to pancreatic cancer. (University of Washington Photo / Dennis Wise)

University of Washington researchers have created a smartphone app that can let users screen themselves for pancreatic cancer and other diseases by taking a selfie.

But not just any selfie.

The BiliScreen app is designed to focus in on the whites of your eyes. If your whites have an overly yellowish tinge, that could suggest you have increased levels of a compound known as bilirubin. That’s a sign of jaundice, and also one of the earliest indicators of pancreatic cancer.

The first effects on the whites of a person’s eyes, also known as the sclera, are too subtle to be noticeable to the naked eye. Heightened levels typically show up in blood tests, but the UW team says BiliScreen can serve as an effective, low-cost, low-impact screening tool.

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ShakeAlert warning system gets $4.9M boost

ShakeAlert warning
The ShakeAlert earthquake warning system is designed to give schools, utilities and other facilities advance alerts about serious seismic shocks. (USGS Photoillustration)

The University of Washington and six other research institutions will benefit from $4.9 million in funding from the U.S. Geological Survey for the ShakeAlert earthquake warning system, which could eventually provide precious seconds of advance notice that a seismic shock is coming.

The grant funds a fresh set of two-year cooperative agreements with UW as well as Central Washington University, the University of Oregon, Caltech, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Nevada at Reno and the Colorado-based UNAVCO research consortium.

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How evildoers could hack into DNA data

DNA data output
This output from a sequencing machine includes the University of Washington team’s exploit, which is being sequenced with a number of unrelated strands. Each dot represents one strand of DNA in a given sample. (UW Photo / Dennis Wise)

Computer scientists are turning DNA into a new frontier for data storage and information processing, but a team from the University of Washington says it could become a frontier for cybercrime as well.

To prove their point, the researchers turned a snippet of malicious computer code into a string of synthetic DNA, and then used it to take control of a computer that was programmed to search for patterns in the raw files that emerge from DNA sequencing.

They also found known security gaps in many of the open-source software programs that are used to analyze DNA sequencing data.

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UW prof fired amid claims of sex harassment

Michael Katze
The University of Washington says virologist Michael Katze has violated university sexual harassment policies. (Credit: UW)

University of Washington microbiologist Michael Katze made a name for himself as a researcher specializing in viral pathogens such as the Ebola virus, but now he’s in the news for a different reason – as the first tenured UW professor to be terminated.

This week’s firing follows an investigation into charges of sexual harassment and misuse of university resources, which first came to light last year in a report by BuzzFeed News.

In a statement emailed to GeekWire, UW spokesman Victor Balta said a months-long disciplinary process “confirmed violations of university policies and executive orders, including conduct counter to the core values of our university.” The termination “upholds our commitment to a safe workplace for all employees,” Balta said.

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Scientists find recipe to regenerate retinas

Retinal cells
A microscopic view documents how glial cells in the retina can be transformed into functioning neurons. (UW Photo / Tom Reh Lab)

University of Washington researchers have found a way to activate cells in the retinas of adult mice to turn into new neurons – a recipe that eventually could lead to new treatments for human eyes damaged by trauma and disease.

UW biologist Tom Reh, one of the authors of a research paper on the experiments published by the journal Nature, said it’s too early to talk about cures – but not too early to talk about hope.

He told GeekWire that the newly published work on cell conversion complements different approaches that rely on cell transplants.

“I hope that one or the other approach starts to deliver results to patients in the near term,” he said. “We’re working really hard every day to make this work for people.”

Making it work for mice was hard enough.

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Biomedical labs get $10 million boosts

Jay Shendure
University of Washington geneticist Jay Shendure will direct one of the newly created Allen Discovery Centers. (Allen Institute Photo)

The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to speed the pace of biomedical breakthroughs, is adding two more research centers to its lineup – including one at the University of Washington.

Each of the Allen Discovery Centers will receive $10 million in grants over the next four years, with the potential for a total $30 million boost over eight years.

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Killer whale woes linked to salmon shortage

Orca mother and calf
A southern resident killer whale calf accompanies its mother in 2004. (NOAA Photo)

What’s killing the killer whales? After following the whales and analyzing their poop for years, scientists say the Pacific Northwest’s population is dwindling primarily due to a chronic lack of Chinook salmon.

The killer whales, also known as orcas, aren’t dying of starvation. Rather, the scientists say the stress of not getting enough to eat is causing orca pregnancies to fail.

Other factors, such as marine pollutants and disruptive ship traffic, contribute to the whales’ woes as well. But in a paper being published in the June 29 issue of the journal PLOS ONE, the researchers say the data point most directly to nutritional stress.

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‘Kidney on a chip’ gets set for space

Kidney on a chip
The “kidney on a chip” is about the size of a credit card. (UW Photo / Alex Levine)

A stack of card-sized gizmos that test the effects of drugs, toxins and weightlessness on human kidney cells is due to take a ride to the International Space Station as early as next year – and researchers at the University of Washington can’t wait.

“Use of the human kidney-on-a-chip here on Earth has already taught us a lot about kidney function and kidney diseases,” Jonathan Himmelfarb, director of the Kidney Research Institute and a professor at the UW School of Medicine, said today in a news release.

“The opportunity to study how physical cues emanating from loss of gravitational forces affect kidney cellular function has the potential to improve the health of people living on Earth, as well as prevent medical complications that astronauts experience from weightlessness,” he added.

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Asteroid Institute gears up to protect Earth

Gravity tractor
How do you divert a potentially threatening asteroid? One of the suggested scenarios is to station a “gravity tractor” near the asteroid so that the gravitational interaction gradually shifts the threatening object to a non-threatening trajectory. (FIAAA / B612 Foundation Illustration / Dan Durda)

The B612 Foundation is setting up an Asteroid Institute to study techniques for detecting and diverting near-Earth objects that may threaten our planet – and giving the University of Washington a leading role.

The B612 Asteroid Institute’s first two postdoctoral research fellows will be posted to UW’s DIRAC Institute, where they’ll help develop analytical tools to track asteroids and assess how much of an impact risk they pose.

That task meshes with the 15-year-old B612 Foundation’s mission of calling attention to the asteroid threat and the technologies that will be needed to spare us from the fate that the dinosaurs faced 65 million years ago.

“In a sense, the Asteroid Institute reflects what we’ve always been doing,” B612 President Danica Remy told GeekWire during a visit to Seattle.

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