Scientists separately in the U.S. and the U.K. have been working on developing an artificial liver. The artificial liver works outside the body in a way similar to kidney dialysis. The idea is to create a device that would buy time for a patient with acute liver failure where the liver has the potential to regenerate. Blood would be taken from the patient directly into the bioartificial liver, allowing their own liver a rest from processing toxins. This could allow the patient's liver to heal itself. The treatment would take a number of weeks or months before the liver was repaired.

It could also be used as a bridge to transplantation where the patient has chronic liver failure due to hepatitis, cirrhosis or other irreversible damage, and would buy valuable time before transplantation. It will provide some of the lost functions.

HepaMate™ made by Hepalife will be undergoing a new pivotal Phase III clinical trial in the United States in 2010. It follows a clinical Phase I and pivotal Phase II/III studies involving more than 200 patients. which revealed a statistically significant survival advantage for patients with fulminant and subfulminant hepatic failure when treated with HepaMate compared to controls receiving standard medical care alone.

Read more: Artificial Livers

The Argus II artificial eye is manufactured by Second Sight Medical Products Inc. It's designed to take the place of damaged photoreceptors. Although these devices are still experimental, Second Sight is seeking approval to market the device which may come as soon as next year in Europe and the U.S.

In May 2009 they received approval from the US FDA to trial the Argus 2 in 20 more people. Since then there have been various news articles showing promising results.

Read more: Bionic Eye From Second Sight

Boston Dynamics has developed this walking robot prototype called PETMAN. The final version is due to be completed in 2011 and will be able to able to walk and crawl for simulating combat suits.

Although this is being developed for military testing, the natural heal-toe walking could make some good human like bionic legs. Or the auto stabilization software applied to existing exoskeletons could one day allow for disabled and elderly people to walk again.

Heartware is an Australian company that manufactures a Ventricular Assist System. It's designed to help patient's with weakened hearts by removing blood from the left side of the heart and pumping the blood into the aorta.

A miniaturized centrifugal pump called the HVADTM is designed to rest inside the chest and can generate up to 10 liters per minute of blood flow. Two small motor stators inside the pump housing cause an impeller within the device to rotate, pumping blood through the system.

Read more: Heartware Ventricular Assist System

Didrick Medical have developed the X-Finger. It's is the world’s first active-function artificial finger assembly designed specifically for partial finger amputees. The device allows users to regain complete control of the flexion and extension movements of an artificial finger in a self-contained device. An optional silicone sheath can be fitted over the mechanics to reveal a realistic looking finger that was never lost.

The Xfinger is not powered, but rather relies on the movement of the remaining muscle. However the simplicity and no need for power is what makes the device so comfortable and natural.

Read more: The Xfinger by Didrick Medical

Monitoring a tumor for weeks or months after the biopsy, tracking its growth and how it responds to treatment, would be much more valuable, says Michael Cima, MIT professor of materials science and engineering, who has developed the first implantable device that can do just that. Cima and his colleagues recently reported that their device successfully tracked a tumor marker in mice for one month. The work is described in a paper published online in the journal Biosensors & Bioelectronics in April.

Such implants could one day provide up-to-the-minute information about what a tumor is doing -- whether it is growing or shrinking, how it's responding to treatment, and whether it has metastasized or is about to do so."What this does is basically take the lab and put it in the patient," said Cima, who is also an investigator at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.

Read more: Cancer Implant Device Offers Continuous Tumor Monitoring

The Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) of the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech has developed a unique robotic hand that can firmly hold objects as heavy as a can of food or as delicate as a raw egg, while dexterous enough to gesture for sign language.

Named RAPHaEL (Robotic Air Powered Hand with Elastic Ligaments), the fully articulated robotic hand is powered by a compressor air tank at 60 psi and a novel accordion type tube actuator. Microcontroller commands operate the movement to coordinate the motion of the fingers.

Read more: New Air Powered Robotic Hand

UpgradeYourBody normally submits stories on the latest high tech gadgets but I thought for once I'd write about a cheap low tech device that can help many more people. Bionic legs can cost tens of thousands of dollars which puts them way out of reach for patients in the third world. Now a prosthetic knee is available for just $20 and will no doubt make a difference in many lives.

Joel Sadler and his classmates faced a daunting challenge in their Biomedical Device Design and Evaluation course. There were given a task to create a low-cost, high-performance prosthetic knee joint for amputees in the developing world. Dubbed the JaipurKnee Project, the team aimed to help rectify lives ravaged by war and diseases such as diabetes.

Read more: $20 Artificial Knee For Patients In The Developing World

Ossur who deveops prosthetic limbs announced recently that its second generation Power Knee bionic prosthesis was implanted in a patient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The power knee uses sensors and actuators, coupled with artificial intelligence to better mimic natural walking with less effort by the patient.

Read more: Next Generation of Ossur Power Knee

Jacob Rosen is developing a wearable robotic "exoskeleton" that could enable a person to lift heavy objects with little effort. It's a bit like the robotic armor that has long been a staple of futuristic battle scenes in science fiction books and movies. But what excites Rosen is the device's potential to help people disabled by stroke or degenerative diseases.

"People with muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular disabilities could use the exoskeleton to amplify their muscle strength, and it could also be used for rehabilitation and physical therapy," said Rosen, an associate professor of computer engineering in the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Read more: Medical Robotics Expert Explores the Human Machine Interface