Looking for an alternative contrast agent? How about barley?

Published June 29, 2018 This content is archived.

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An article on DOTmed reports on research by Jun Xia, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Jonathan Lovell, associate professor of biomedical engineering, that showed that barley is an ideal and safe contrast agent for diagnosing swallowing disorders.

"Here you have this common grain -- it has been grown all over the world for thousands of years, and used to make tea, bread, beer -- and we're just now finding another use for it as a contrast agent for medical imaging," Xia said.

The Department of Biomedical Engineering is a joint program of the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Read the story here.

An article also appeared on Science Blog.