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Australia Achieves World Breakthrough in Eye Surgery.

Adult Stem Cells Give Hope to Heart Repair.

Australian Scientist Trying to Make Sense of Synesthesia.

Chinese Scientists Find DNA in Ancient Plants.

Chinese Scientist Develops Cancer Monitoring Bio-chip.

India Develops Three Varieties of Bt Cotton.

Rat Experiment Boosts Hope for Weak Heart.

Light Therapy Could Reverse Sun Damage.

New Zealand Scientists Breed Designer Mussels.

Thai Researcher Blames Fish Sauce for Sleep Deaths.

Australian Breakthrough on 3-D Structure of Cancer Cell Protein.

Guidance Mechanism for Brain Stem Cells Discovered.

Synthetic Elastin for Tissue Repair in Humans.

Clue to Cause of Chronic Lung Disease Uncovered.

New Insights into Cause of Stomach Cancer.

Chinese Scientists Develop Salt-resistant Plants.

ED Study Yields Good Results.

CUHK Joins Drug Delivery Study for Posterior Uveitis.

Japanese Researchers Achieve Gene Targeting in Rice.

Device to Detect Tooth Decay in Advance.

Japan to Study Whether Cloned Cows are Safe to Eat.

Researchers Look for Clues to Slow Down Aging.

Malaysian Institute Applies Genetic Engineering to Crops and Fruits.

NZ Develops GM Potatoes.

Breakthrough Technique in Eye Surgery.

Researchers to Develop Biodegradable Heart Stent.

Taiwan Scientists Discover Gastric Cancer Markers.

Robots, A Potential Staple in Eye Surgery.

Interviews at Commonwealth Science Conference 2017.

Precision Medicine for Cancer Patients: Interview with Dr Allen Lai.

We present a telemanipulation system for retinal surgery that uses a full range of unmodified commercially available instruments. The system is compact and light enough that it could reasonably be made head-mounted to passively compensate for head movements. Two mechanisms are presented that enable the system to use commercial actuated instruments, and an instrument adapter enables quick-change of instruments during surgery. A custom stylus for a haptic interface enables intuitive and ergonomic telemanipulation of actuated instruments. Experimental results with a force-sensitive phantom eye show that telemanipulated surgery results in reduced forces on the retina compared to manual surgery, and training with the system results in improved performance.

A variety of robot-assisted surgical systems have been proposed to improve precision in the most challenging eye surgeries. However, little attention has been paid to patient motion due to breathing, snoring, talking, and other events that are common during eye surgery. This is problematic because patient motion is typically relative to a grounded surgical robot. In this paper, we characterize the benefits of a new paradigm in which robots are mounted semirigidly and noninvasively to the patient’s head. This paradigm utilizes compact high-precision telerobotic systems that have been designed for this use. We present an initial design concept focused on eye surgery, and demonstrate an order-of-magnitude improvement of within-breathing-cycle motion relative to the robot compared to a pillow rest, with an optional head strap, which is the current standard of care, while essentially eliminating gross relative motion. We conduct a human-subjects study to quantify the relative motion that remains. Finally, we present an alternative design concept that leaves the patient’s face unobstructed, which may be of interest for other kinds of surgery as well.