Cancer is tricky. It hides and grows, making it hard to treat. But what if we could send tiny, smart helpers to find and fight cancer cells? That's the idea behind a new type of nanoparticle. These aren't just any nanoparticles. They're designed to stay calm and inactive while traveling through the body. This way, they don't hurt healthy cells. But when they reach a ...
Abdominal wall defects are no joke. They can lead to serious health issues. So, finding a good way to fix them is a big deal. Usually, doctors use patches made from polymers. But these can cause problems like inflammation and rejection by the body. That's where the Silk@Extracellular Matrix (S@ECM) patch comes in. It's made from silk and the body's own natural glue, ...
Skin injuries are a common issue, especially for those who are active or play sports. These injuries often occur in areas that move a lot, like joints. The problem is that regular dressings don't always stay in place when these areas move. This can lead to wounds reopening, infections, and slower healing. With around 2. 4 million joint surgeries happening every year,...
There is a lot of interest in creating artificial muscles that work like real ones. Real muscles are complex. Their strength changes based on how they are used right now and how they were used before. To see if artificial muscles can do the same, a new way of testing was developed. This testing method looks at how these artificial muscles handle different amounts of ...
Brain tumors, especially a type called glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), are tough to beat. Current treatments like surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy only give patients about 15 months to live on average. Scientists are now testing a new approach using tiny robots called nanorobots to fight GBM. These robots are coated with bits of two types of cells - platelets and ...
Ever wondered why healing a rotator cuff is such a big deal? It's because the tendon-bone interface (TBI) has a tough time healing on its own, and that's where retears happen. Scientists are racing to make better repair materials that are strong and can control how the immune system responds to help it heal right. In one recent study, scientists cooked up a new scaf...
Scientists have been trying to figure out how to make the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) work better for industry. They looked at a natural protein cluster in something called PS-II for inspiration. They mixed up different organic and inorganic bits to make new electrocatalysts using a hydrothermal method. The key players here are p-toluidine (PT), benzoic acid (BA)...
Ever wondered how cells handle stress during migration? It turns out, they form tiny bubbles called migrasomes. These aren't just any bubbles; they form in specific areas called retraction fibers (RFs) when cells migrate. RFs are like tiny tubes pulled out of a cell's outer layer during movement. Let's dive into how these migrasomes form. First, a part of the RF swe...
Scientists have created a clever new tool inspired by chameleons to help spot a harmful chemical called diethylstilbestrol (DES) in our food and water. This tool, called a biomimetic molecular imprinted polymer chip, changes colors when it detects DES. It's like a tiny, color-changing sensor! The chip uses special color-changing balls filled with fluorescent pigment...
Meet the Optomagnetic Micromirror Arrays (OMA), a unique tool designed to figure out how stiff biomimetic materials are, even on a tiny, cellular level. Picture this: a 5. 1 by 7. 2 millimeter field filled with 50, 000 teeny-tiny magnetic mirrors, each with optical grating structures and coated with an elastic PDMS film. These mirrors are topped with biomimetic mater...