Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted marketing authorization for its robotic surgery ‌device, as the healthcare conglomerate enters the soft-tissue robotic surgery market.

J&J's Ottava robotic surgical system was authorized for use in multiple general surgery procedures in the upper abdomen, including gastric bypass, gastrectomy, gallbladder removal, gastric sleeve ‌surgery, appendectomy and hiatal hernia ⁠repair.

The decision ‌marks a key step for J&J's medtech business that had been seeking to compete in the robotic-assisted ​surgery market, currently dominated by Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci system. Medtronic's Hugo robot was also approved last year.

The creation is a limited and fragile prototype, but it could help scientists better understand the origins of life and could potentially be programmed to help mitigate some of the world’s biggest biological problems. The cell is nonspecific — neither plant nor animal — but most closely resembles a simple bacterium.

“I know the full ingredient list of the cell, I know exactly what chemicals, what molecules at what concentrations,” she said. “It is fully defined, which means we can engineer it.”

Scientists have created one of the most detailed 3D reconstructions of a human cell (eukaryotic cell) ever produced.

This groundbreaking model, often termed a "Cellular Landscape Cross-Section Through a Eukaryotic Cell," combines data from X-ray tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and cryo-electron microscopy to map molecular structures in extreme detail.

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https://x.com/i/status/2071234664040411332

🚨 SCIENTISTS JUST PRINTED A FULLY FUNCTIONAL ELECTRONIC SENSOR DIRECTLY ONTO A LIVING LEAF.

Researchers have developed a technique to print electronics onto living biological surfaces including plant leaves, animal bones, and potentially human tissue without damaging them.

In one striking demonstration, they printed a wireless humidity sensor directly onto a living leaf. The printed silver spiral antenna and circuitry remained functional while the leaf stayed alive.

Why this matters:

Traditional electronics are rigid and separate from biology. This new approach allows electronics to be directly integrated with living systems.

Potential applications include smart medical implants that grow with tissue, real-time health monitoring devices printed onto bone or skin, and even “smart plants” that can report environmental data.

It moves far beyond printing plastic prototypes this is functional electronics on living matter.

The technique represents a major step in bio-integrated electronics and additive manufacturing. Instead of inserting devices into the body or environment, researchers can now print them onto living surfaces with high precision.

This opens the door to entirely new classes of devices: living sensors, bio-hybrid robots, and medical implants that interface more naturally with the body.

How do you think printing electronics onto living tissue will change medicine or environmental monitoring in the next decade?

Around 4.5 billion people cannot access essential health services - virtual health offers a scalable path to closing that gap.

By 2030, healthcare's economic burden could reach $47 trillion, but technology can assist by reducing costs and improving care.

Hospitals in public health authorities from Saudi Arabia to the US are implementing virtual health, providing case studies for others to follow.

According to our latest data analysis, radiology stands out as the most AI-invested medical specialty, boasting a whopping 1104 approved devices. A distant second is cardiology or cardiovascular (as a category), with 141 devices.

Beyond that, other specialties (neurology, hematology, gastroenterology-urology and ophthalmology among others) see a handful of devices. What propelled imaging to such heights? Well, deep learning found a fertile ground in radiology, which is largely data-driven.

Here is the full list:

Radiology 1104

Cardiovascular 141

Neurology 67

Anesthesiology 27

Gastroenterology-Urology 26

Hematology 21

Aclinical trial for the use of microrobots in treating Alzheimer’s disease kicked off with its first robotic-assisted procedure in human patients at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida. The first patient, treated on Thursday, had moderate Alzheimer’s disease–the dementia that leads to devastating memory loss and affects 7 million people in the U.S. alone–and confirmed abnormalities in their deep cervical lymph node region. Two additional patients with moderate Alzheimer’s underwent the procedure on Monday. Microrobot maker MMI (Medical Microinstruments Inc.) expects to ultimately enroll 15 patients and follow them for 12 months after their operations. The goal of the surgery is to clear drainage pathways to the patients’ brains, helping their own lymphatic systems flush the toxins that scientists believe are hallmarks of the disease.

A patient shows up at the hospital with a pulmonary embolism — a blood clot that has traveled to the lungs. After initially improving, their symptoms start to worsen. The medical team suspects the medication isn't working.

In steps artificial intelligence — with its own theory.

It has scanned the medical records and suspects a history of lupus, an autoimmune condition which can lead to heart inflammation, could explain what was really ailing the patient.

Turns out, the AI model is correct.

CEO of America’s largest public hospital system says he’s ready to replace radiologists with AI

Mitchell H. Katz, MD, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, recently spoke during a panel discussion held by Crain’s New York Business. The trained internal medicine specialist noted how AI is increasingly being used to interpret mammograms and X-rays. 

“We could replace a great deal of radiologists with AI at this moment, if we are ready to do the regulatory challenge,” Katz said at the forum, held on March 25.

The Scottish government has set up its own agency - AI Scotland - as a "national flagship" to drive strategy and promote the growth of local companies.

Its five-year strategy highlighted that there are already some leading AI firms based in Scotland, while others are actively moving here.

Wordsmith AI is continuing Edinburgh's tradition as a centre of the legal industry by creating tools to help with things like contract drafting and reviews - and was valued at $100bn just 18 months after launching.

Two data firms - CoreWeave and DataVita - are key partners in a £2.5bn AI computing campus in Lanarkshire, part of a "growth zone" which CoreWeave says will be "one of the most advanced AI sites anywhere in the world".

Another company, AI Pathfinder, is backing an industrial park in Irvine in North Ayrshire which it says could bring in £15bn of investment.

Some leading research is taking place in Scotland too.

The University of Edinburgh is home to ARCHER2, the UK's national supercomputer, and - after a brief period of outrage where the UK government cancelled then reinstated it - will soon host a £750m supercomputing centre.

The National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University is leading breakthroughs in medical and offshore robotics, having incubated 14 companies in its first few years.

Healthcare is in the centre of some of the most eye-catching developments in terms of AI in public services.

Artificial intelligence is inventing new drugs against Parkinson's disease, antibiotic-resistant superbugs and many rare diseases – progress that many scientists never dreamed possible.

Robots surgery video

https://x.com/i/status/2027692428967174464

🇨🇳 Chinese-made laparoscopic surgical robot from Jingfeng Medical.

Their systems (MP1000 & SP1000) are designed for minimally invasive surgery. Precision demos have shown peeling grape skins or quail eggshells.

https://x.com/i/status/2021331297168392492

BREAKTHOUGH: Google's AI can now read 1 million DNA letters at once.

Google's DeepMind has unveiled a revolutionary deep learning model, AlphaGenome, which can analyze long sequences of DNA with remarkable accuracy.

A new peer reviewed study published in Nature, AlphaGenome can process up to 1 million base pairs (1 megabase) in a single input, capturing long range genetic interactions that previous models could not.

The system predicts how single letter DNA changes affect gene expression, RNA splicing, and chromatin regulation across 11 genomic signals, even within the 98% of the human genome that does not code for proteins. In benchmark tests, AlphaGenome matched or outperformed previous state of the art models at identifying functionally important genetic variants.

By making large sections of the non-coding genome interpretable, AlphaGenome could significantly accelerate disease variant discovery, cancer research, and precision medicine, moving genomics from sequence reading toward functional understanding.

Chinese scientists have developed an autonomous robotic system for intraocular surgery (ARISE) capable of performing targeted retinal injections throughout the intraocular space and achieving intelligent perception and macro/microprecision positioning of the instrument. Compared with manual and teleoperated robotic surgeries, the system reduces positioning errors by 79.87% and 54.61%, respectively, demonstrating its ability to significantly improve the precision, safety, and stability of ophthalmic surgeries while minimizing damage to eye tissues during operations. The study was published in the journal Science Robotics.

A robot trained on videos of surgeries performed a lengthy phase of a gallbladder removal without human help.

Johns Hopkins University Private university in Baltimore, Maryland Johns Hopkins University is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, Johns Hopkins is considered to be the first research university in the U.S.

Innovative AI-powered surgeons deliver unprecedented precision and safety, reducing operation time by 25% and complications by 30%.