Feedy skin skin#
Feedy skin Patch#

Veiseh, the study's corresponding author and an assistant professor of bioengineering in Rice's George R. While DEET was slightly more effective, both tests showed each repellent deterred mosquitoes from feeding. Tests showed mosquitoes readily fed on hydrogels without any repellent and stayed away from hydrogel patches coated with either repellent. In the proof-of-concept experiments featured in the study, Wesson, Janson and co-authors used the system to examine the effectiveness of existing mosquito repellents made with either DEET or a plant-based repellent derived from the oil of lemon eucalyptus plants. Wesson's research group has facilities for breeding and testing large populations of mosquitoes of varying species. The system was tested at the laboratory of Dawn Wesson, a mosquito expert and associate professor of tropical medicine at Tulane's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Mosquitos are placed in the chamber, and the cameras record how often the insects land at each location, how long they stay, whether or not they bite, how long they feed and the like. The chambers are surrounded with cameras that point at each blood-infused hydrogel patch.

adviser Omid Veiseh, used bioprinting techniques that were pioneered in the lab of former Rice professor Jordan Miller.įor feeding tests, as many as six of the hydrogels can be placed in a transparent plastic box about the size of a volleyball.

To create the stand-ins for skin, Rice's team, which included Janson and his Ph.D.

Feedy skin Patch#

Each patch of gelatin-like hydrogel comes complete with tiny passageways that can be filled with flowing blood.

Feedy skin skin#

To eliminate the need for live volunteers, their system uses patches of synthetic skin made with a 3D printer. So he and his co-authors found a way to automate the collection and processing of that data using inexpensive cameras and machine-learning software. Live subject testing can be expensive, and Janson said the 'data can take many hours to process.' 'Many mosquito experiments still rely on human volunteers and animal subjects,' said Kevin Janson, a Rice bioengineering graduate student and lead co-author of a study about the research published this week in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. The insects' bites can spread diseases like malaria, dengue and yellow fever, but setting up experiments to examine their behavior can take a big bite out of lab budgets. Įarly SSC did not improve BF behavior at discharge but significantly improved the EBF rates of term neonates.Rice University bioengineers have teamed up with tropical medicine experts from Tulane University to take some of the pain out of studying the feeding behavior of mosquitoes. EBF rates at 48 h and at 6 weeks were, however, significantly higher in the early-SSC group than in the control group. There was no significant difference in the BAT scores between the groups. The secondary outcomes were EBF rates at 48 h and 6 weeks of age and salivary cortisol level of infants at 6 h of age.īaseline characteristics including birth weight and gestation were comparable between the two groups. The primary outcome, infants' BF behavior at 48 h of life, was assessed using the modified infant Breast-Feeding Assessment Tool (BAT a score consisting of infant's readiness to feed, sucking, rooting and latching, each item scored from 0 to 3) by three independent masked observers. Subsequently, one BF session of the infants was video recorded at about 48 h of life. SSC was continued for at least 2 h after birth. Term infants born by normal delivery were randomized at birth to either early SSC (n = 20) or conventional care (controls n = 21).

To evaluate if early skin-to-skin contact (SSC) improves breast-feeding (BF) behavior and exclusive BF (EBF) rates in term infants at 48 h of age.