Category Biology/Biotechnology

1.3-D tissue imaged using 3-D fluorescent imaging, where many cells laid down sequentially to make attached layers of alternating cell types like membranes in the human body.
Credit: York University
2. York U chemistry Professor Muhammad Yousaf looks at the 3D heart tissue cells beating together as one

Matters of the heart can be complicated, but York University scientists have found a way to create 3D heart tissue that beats in synchronized harmony, like a heart in love, that will l

ead to better understanding of cardiac health and improved treatments. York U chemistry Professor Muhammad Yousaf and his team of grad students have devised a way to stick 3 different types of cardiac cells together, like Velcro, to make heart tissue that beats as one.

Until now, most 2D and 3D in vitro tissue d...

Crohn’s disease bacteria drives arthritis. E. coli bacteria (red), which are abundant in the immunoglobulin-A-coated microbiota of patients with a Crohn’s disease-associated condition called spondyloarthritis, promote systemic inflammation. The blue circular structures depict the nuclei of cells called epithelial cells. All images: Dr. Kenneth Simpson, Cornell University.

Patients with Crohn’s disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes abdominal pain and diarrhea, can also experience joint pain. In Crohn’s disease, which affects about 800,000 Americans, the immune system can attack not only the bowels, but the musculoskeletal system as well, leading to spondyloarthritis, a painful condition that affects the spine and joints. Now new research, published Feb...

Stretchable UV curable (SUV) elastomers can be stretched by up to 1100% and are suitable for digital light processing (DLP) based 3D printing technology. DLP printing of these SUV elastomers enables the direct creation of highly deformable complex 3D hollow structures such as balloons, soft actuators, grippers, and Bucky ball electronical switches.

Due to its excellent material properties of elasticity, resilience, and electrical and thermal insulation, elastomers have been used in a myriad of applications. They are especially ideal for fabricating soft robots, flexible electronics and smart biomedical devices which require soft, deformable material properties for safe and smooth interactions with humans externally and internally.

However, to date, the most widely used silicon rubber-based...

Scientists have uncovered key processes in the healthy development of cells which line the human gut, furthering their understanding about the development of cancer.

Scientists have uncovered key processes in the healthy development of cells which line the human gut, furthering their understanding about the development of cancer. A University of East Anglia (UEA) study shows that a protein called ninein is essential for normal tissue development in the gut. The research aimed to unravel some of the poorly-understood mechanisms involved in rearranging the cytoskeleton – in cells that are undergoing a shape change during normal development.

Using ‘mini-guts’ created in the lab, they studied the tubular filaments which are part of the cytoskeleton called microtubules, and their dramatic rearr...