4 breakthrough technologies at #amnc15

New technology that is set to change the world is the focus of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions taking place in the Chinese city of Dalian this week. Here we highlight four of the most interesting new products and services to be featured at this World Economic Forum event.

1. Grow your own bone

If you lose a bone to illness or an accident then your options are mostly limited to techniques that involve donor or animals bones. Or there’s autograft – the tricky grafting of a piece of bone from one part of the body to another that is subject to rejection and complications. New York-based Epibone has a new solution that uses stem cells. This is done by taking a CT scan of the patient, creating a 3D ‘scaffold’ in the shape of the required replacement, extracting a fat sample to isolate stem cells, and growing a replacement bone for transplant.

2. Electricity from living plants

Dutch company Plant-e is developing a technology that generates electricity from plants without damaging them. The promise is clean electricity for wetlands like paddy fields, salt marches and mangroves that are home to some of the world’s most impoverished communities. Plants excrete organic matter into the soil, which is broken down by bacteria. In the process of breaking down electrons are released and it is possible to harvest them using inert electrodes and turn them into electricity, without affecting the plant’s growth.

3. Light fixtures that mimic natural light

People can find it stressful living and working in closed spaces where  the only source of light is artificial. Meanwhile, the calming qualities of natural sunlight are well-known. CoeLux has created ceiling LED fixtures that look like an aperture onto a sunny sky. The technology holds promise in areas ranging from hospitals to hotels. The secret to the technology’s power is the use of nanoparticles that mimic the physics of sunlight passing through the atmosphere.

4. A DNA test to save your eyesight

Avellino Labs has developed a DNA test for complications from eye surgery by providing diagnosis for a specific genetic mutation associated with the wound-healing process. During certain surgeries, such as laser vision correction, the body produces healing proteins to repair and clear the cornea. In people with genetic mutations these proteins collect inside the cornea, obstructing vision and leading to blindness. The test is non-invasive and results come back in 24 hours.

Epibone CEO Nina Tandon will be taking part in What are the latest breakthrough Innovations in Health?, Plant-e CEO Marjolein Helder  and Avelino founder Gene Lee will be taking part in ‘Socially Disruptive Technologies’ at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions. CoeLux founder Paolo di Trapani will be participating at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions.

Author: José Santiago, Senior Associate, Public Engagement at the World Economic Forum.

Image: Two boys at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum look at images that are 48 hours old, coming back from the sun, in Washington REUTERS/Gary Cameron