Apple hires man who 3D printed his brain tumour

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New York, April 22 (IANS) Apple has hired Steven Keating, the doctoral student from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who made a 3D printout of his own brain after he was diagnosed with a tumour, a media report said.

According to a report in CNBC on Friday, it is still not known whether Keating is working on one of Apple's teams dedicated to health care or he has joined another team that can take advantage of his expertise in mechanical engineering.

Keating made headlines in 2015 after revealing the depths of his science experiment to better understand his own tumour.

Keating told Vox that he collected 75 GB of his health information.

Keating on Friday addressed audience Sage at Bionetworks' annual conference "Assembly" held in Seattle as an Apple employee.

He spoke about the challenges for patients to aggregate their own medical data. Keating said he ended up going to medical school at least in part so he could study his own tissue, the report added.

Apple recently acquired a personal health data startup called Gliimpse which is designed to help people aggregate their medical information.

Sage Bionetworks, a non-profit research organisation, has been a major proponent of Apple's ResearchKit software, which is designed to make it easier for medical researchers to launch mobile-based studies.

A secret team of biomedical engineers at Apple is also working on an initiative to develop sensors that can non-invasively and continuously monitor blood sugar levels to better treat diabetes.

If such sensors are successfully developed, that would be a breakthrough as it is highly challenging to track glucose levels accurately without piercing the skin. It can help millions of people turn devices like Apple Watch into a must-have.