"We could create devices sensitive to any physical energy, " said Prof Nicolelis, from the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

BBC: Lab rats 'acquire sixth sense'

The technique has been perfected at the Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, where 80% of toddlers who have been treated have survived.

BBC: Foetus

"The question is proportionality, " said Dr. Kevin Schulman, director of the Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and one of the study authors.

CNN: Growth of clinical trial outsourcing raises issues

Obese workers filed twice the number of workers' compensation claims, had seven times higher medical costs from those claims and lost 13 times more days of work from work injury or illness than other workers, according to a Duke University Medical Center study of the health records of more than 11, 000 Duke University employees.

FORBES: Magazine Article

But Robert Harrington, a well-known Duke University Medical Center cardiologist, thought that the good and bad results from the drug made the study neutral, meaning there was no clear benefit from the medicine.

FORBES: AtheroGenics: Promise And Peril

But "it is not absolutely a cause for alarm that if your child is born prematurely, something terrible is going to happen to it", said Dr Geeta Swamy of Duke University Medical Center, who carried out the research.

BBC: Long-term risk of premature birth

The immunotherapy method, which Nowak-Wegrzyn called a "big advancement in the field, " has also shown promise in a study by Duke University Medical Center and Arkansas Children's Hospital.

CNN: 'Exciting' advance reported in peanut allergy therapy

Surgeons at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, removed as much of the tumor as possible the following month.

CNN: Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy dies after cancer battle