Gas capsules for better gut health
Problem
Intestinal gases have been linked colon cancer and many other diseases in both humans and animals.
Traditional methods of assessing the gas content of a living gut can invasive and inaccurate, or both.
A better method of assessing intestinal gas is needed to improve the health of people and livestock.
Project
The Australian Department of Agriculture and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) sponsored the development of a new device to measure intestinal gasses accurately and safely.
Our researchers are leading a team of researchers from the CSIRO, Monash University, and the University of Melbourne to develop a swallowable device capable of measuring gastrointestinal gas and transmitting the information to a smart-phone.
The project has involved a pooling of expertise across a range of industries.
Outcome
CSIRO’s Chris McSweeney says the collaboration with RMIT has been underway for three years, and that the project is about half way to completion.
“RMIT has been very productive throughout the project, with a blending of ours and their expertise to cover all aspects of biological applications.”
“We’ve been very happy with the progress being made, with some of our prototype devices showing promise, though there is still a significant amount of work to be done to perfect the devices so they function at an optimum level.”
Two dimensional Semiconducting Nanostructures and Devices
The synthesis of two dimensional semi-conducting structures is an area of ongoing research.
These devices have many applications, including electronic elements and sensors. They are being developed in collaboration with researchers and MIT and UCLA in the United States.
Our role in the project is to focus on metal oxides and metal dichalcogenides. Work completed in this field has been featured in well-respected journals including Nature Nanotechnology, Nano Letters, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials and Nano scale.
This work is partly funded by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery program.
Liquid Metal-based Systems
Our members are developing pumps, actuators and frameworks for the manipulation of liquid metal.
These devices are composed of eutectic alloys of gallium (which is itself a liquid at room temperature) and offer extraordinary prospects for the development of soft systems in the future.
Our work has appeared in journals including Advanced Functional Materials, Proceedings of National American Society and Nature Journal.
Microfluidic and dielectrophoretic manipulation of nanoparticles
This ongoing research effort focuses on controlling and manipulating nanoparticles in microfluidic flow using an electric field.
Our researchers are investigating the ability to create suspended optical elements, thermally conductive coolers and biosensors. This work has generated numerous publications including in journals such as Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Society Review and Small, and Lab-on-a-chip.
