hydrogel tagged posts

Electron microscope image of the porous hydrogel. Credit: UNH

Wound healing can be complex and challenging, especially when a patient has other health obstacles that seriously impede the process. Often injectable hydrogels are applied to irregular shaped wounds, like diabetic ulcers, to help form a temporary matrix, or structure, to keep the wound stable while cells rejuvenate. The caveat is that current hydrogels are not porous enough and do not allow neighboring cells to pass through toward the wound to help it mend.

“While valuable for helping patients, current hydrogels have limited clinical efficacy,” said Kyung Jae Jeong, assistant professor of chemical engineering at UNH. “We discovered a simple solution to make the hydrogels more porous and therefore help to speed up the healing...

Rice University graduate student Nicole Carrejo analyzes a sample of K2(SL)6K2, an injectable hydrogel researchers believe may help accelerate the healing of diabetic ulcers. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Invention could accelerate tissue growth compared with current treatment. A hydrogel invented at Rice University that is adept at helping the body heal may also be particularly good at treating wounds related to diabetes. The Rice lab of chemist and bioengineer Jeffrey Hartgerink reported this week that tests on diabetic animal models showed the injectable hydrogel significantly accelerated wound healing compared with another hydrogel often used in clinics. The study appears this week in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering...

3D printing with a new kind of ink which is containing living bacteria. (Illustration: science animated by Bara Krautz)

A group of ETH researchers has now introduced a new 3D printing platform that works using living matter. The researchers developed a bacteria-containing ink that makes it possible to print mini biochemical factories with certain properties, depending on which species of bacteria the scientists put in the ink. They used Pseudomonas putida and Acetobacter xylinum in their work. The former can break down the toxic chemical phenol, which is produced on a grand scale in the chemical industry, while the latter secretes high-purity nanocellulose. This bacterial cellulose relieves pain, retains moisture and is stable, opening up potential applications in the treatment of burns...

Bioinspired supramolecular fibers drawn from a multiphase self-assembled hydrogel. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017; 201705380 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1705380114

A team of architects and chemists from the University of Cambridge has designed super-stretchy and strong fibres which are almost entirely composed of water, and could be used to make textiles, sensors and other materials. The fibres, which resemble miniature bungee cords as they can absorb large amounts of energy, are sustainable, non-toxic and can be made at room temperature...