Ben Evans, assistant professor of physics, has been awarded patent #8,586,368 for a medical diagnostic device which measures blood coagulation.
The patent granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office titled “Methods and Systems for Using Actuated Surface-Attached Posts for Assessing Biofluid Rheology” was the result of a collaboration between Evans and researchers Rich Superfine, Richard Spero, Adam Shields and Briana Fiser at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The invention is a medical diagnostic device which uses the motion of microscopic magnetic structures to detect the rate of coagulation in a patient’s blood. Evans specifically contributed the development of the magnetic microstructures on which the device is based.
Evans has previously published this work in Nanoletters, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and at a national meeting of the Biophysical Society. The full text of the patent can be reviewed here.