Researchers at Harvard University have developed a model of burn injuries that will allow them to investigate the mechanisms underlying healing in such injuries and test out new approaches to enhance this process. Burns can take a long time to heal and can be prone to infection and complicated by the presence of large quantities […]
Tag: Materials
Moving Cells Using Ultrasound
Researchers at Caltech have developed a technique that lets them move groups of cells very precisely. It involves genetically modifying cells so that they express small protein air sacs in their interior. The sacs render the cells highly susceptible to manipulation using ultrasound waves, and the researchers can precisely move them into complicated (Read more...)
Printing Bacteria to Make Bone-Like Structures
Researchers at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have developed a method to 3D print mineralized constructs with a little helping hand from bacteria. The technique consists of printing a polymer bioink that contains bacteria that will produce calcium carbonate when exposed to a urea solution. The two-step (Read more...)
Scientists Grow Electrodes Inside The Body
Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have developed a method whereby the body can ‘grow its own’ electrodes. The minimally invasive technique involves injecting a hydrogel that is laden with enzymes into target tissues. The enzymes interact with molecules that are present in the tissue to change the structure of the gel an (Read more...)
Bacteria Create Protein Nanowires for Biosensing
Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a biosensor that is based on protein nanowires that are created by bacteria. The protein nanowires are highly sensitive to ammonia, in this case, which is present in the breath of patients with kidney disease, but it is likely possible to create nanowires for a huge […]
Electrostatic Face Mask Self-Charges with Breathing
Researchers at City University of Hong Kong have developed an electrostatically charged face mask that can replenish its charge through the wearer’s breathing action. The electrostatic charge helps the mask to adsorb tiny particles, such as SARS-CoV-2 viruses. However, such masks typically lose their charge and ability to bind particles over (Read more...)
Self-Assembling Peptides as a Bioink
Researchers at Rice University have developed a bioprinting method that uses self-assembling peptides as a bioink. The technique involves using “multidomain peptides” that are hydrophobic at one end and hydrophilic at the other. When the peptides encounter water, they flip over each other to create hydrophobic sandwich structures that s (Read more...)
Nanowire Assay Detects Brain Tumors from Urine
Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have developed a nanowire assay that can be used to capture and detect specific extracellular vesicles in a urine sample that indicate the presence of a brain tumor. These extracellular vesicles are naturally excreted in the urine but techniques to capture and analyze them have been complex, requiring diffe (Read more...)
3D Bioengineered Skin Grafts Fit Complex Anatomy
Researchers at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center have developed a method to create three-dimensional bioengineered skin grafts. To date, bioengineered skin is typically created in flat sheets. However, these are difficult to fit to complex anatomy, such as the hand, and so these researchers have designed a more sophisticated techniq (Read more...)
Hydrogel Cell Carrier for Fistula Healing
Researchers at Johns Hopkins created an injectable hydrogel carrier vehicle for stem cells that is intended to aid in healing a difficult complication of Crohn’s disease, perianal fistulas. Perianal fistulas are very challenging to treat, but stem cells have shown promise in assisting with this process. However, it is difficult to get the cel (Read more...)
Antibacterial Peptide Spray Safe for Use on Wounds
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed an antimicrobial spray that is safe to use on wounds and in the body, including as an antimicrobial coating on implantable or in-dwelling devices, such as urinary catheters. The technology is not based on harsh chemical antiseptics or antibiotic drugs that could aggravate tis (Read more...)
Biobots Use Optogenetic Muscle Actuators for Movement
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed centimeter-scale biobots that combine soft materials, mouse muscle tissue, and wireless electronic components. The tiny devices can be controlled remotely through optogenetics. The muscle within the devices forms an optogenetic actuator and creates movement when exposed to (Read more...)
Hydrogel Scaffold Makes a Living Electrode
A team of researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed a soft, hydrogel scaffold that can function as a living electrode for brain-computer interface applications. The researchers used electrically conductive materials and created a porous and flexible scaffold using a freeze-drying process. They then seeded the scaffold with human neur (Read more...)
Bioprinted Eye Tissue to Study Retinal Diseases
Researchers at the National Eye Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, have created a method to 3D bioprint eye tissue that forms the outer blood-retina barrier. This tissue supports the photoreceptors in the retina and is implicated in the initiation of age-related macular degeneration. The researchers combined different ce (Read more...)
Improved Membrane Coating for Anti-Cancer Nanoparticles
Scientists at the University of Eastern Finland have developed a technique that lets them improve the coating of nanoparticles when using cell membranes. Cell membranes offer a lot of benefits as a coating for synthetic nanoparticles, including shielding from the immune system, prolonged circulation times and improved tumor accumulation. However, c (Read more...)
Electrospun Construct Mimics Elasticity of Blood Vessels
Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia have developed an electrospun blood vessel replacement. The material contains tropoelastin, a natural precursor for elastin, a key component of blood vessel walls. Elastin is present in concentric circles in natural blood vessels and provides the elastic properties which allow them to distend sli (Read more...)
Flexible Sensors Measure Fit of Face Masks
Researchers at MIT have developed a sensor system that can provide data on how well a face mask fits to a wearer’s face. The protection offered by a mask is largely dependent on how well it fits the face, but at present most face masks are one-size-fits-all and most wearers are largely unaware if their […]
3D Bioprinted Breast Tumors for Immunotherapy Testing
A team of scientists at Penn State has bioprinted breast tumor mimics with significant complexity, including a form of vascularization and the ability to precisely place cells in certain locations within the construct. The scientists used a technique called aspiration-assisted bioprinting to achieve this. With many anti-cancer therapies failing at (Read more...)
Low Temperature Graphene Coating for Enhanced Wearables
Researchers at Caltech came up with a technique to coat flexible electronic circuits with graphene to enhance their durability on folding, as well as to improve their resistance to sweat (in the case of graphene-coated gold) and their conductivity. The method could enhance the flexible electronics that are employed in many medical wearables. The ap (Read more...)
AI-Designed Custom Knee Implants
Scientists at the University of Birmingham in the UK have trialed Generative Design, a design approach that relies on machine learning and artificial intelligence, to create patient-specific knee implants. At present, knee implants are typically created in a limited range of sizes and shapes. While 3D printing has opened some scope for implants tha (Read more...)