Natural Marvels Lead to New Bio-Inspired Materials
Drawing inspiration from natural marvels to make new materials, UD researchers mimic the architecture of the bristle worm’s jaw system. A tiny bristle worm, wriggling…
Biomaterials
Search for Styrofoam Replacement Leads to Wound-Healing Biofoam
The search for a styrofoam replacement leads to biomaterials with broader impact. Every scientific discovery has one thing in common: It started with a question….
Chemists Create Flexible Polymer Gels From Caffeine
Caffeine is well-known for its ability to help people stay alert, but a team of researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has now…
New Nanofiber Dressings Dramatically Accelerate Healing and Tissue Regeneration
Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have developed new…
New Porous Hydrogel Could Improve the Success of Stem Cell Tissue Regeneration
Using a new porous hydrogel, scientists have experimentally improved bone repair by boosting the survival rate of transplanted stem cells and influencing their cell differentiation….
How Bombardier Beetles Produce an Explosive Chemical Jet
An newly published study form MIT reveals how bombardier beetles superheat liquid and expel it in an intense, pulsating jet as a defensive mechanism. Bombardier…
3D Vaccine Spontaneously Assembles to Fight Cancer, Infectious Diseases
Researchers have developed a new 3D vaccine that spontaneously assembles to provide a more effective way to harness the immune system to fight cancer as…
New Experiments and Simulations Help Explain Collagen’s Force
New research from MIT shows that adding or removing small amounts of water from collagen in tendons can generate surprisingly strong forces, as much as…
Chemists Reveal How Synthetic Collagen Fibers Self-Assemble
Two new researcher papers from Rice University detail how synthetic collagen fibers self-assemble via their sticky ends. Collagen is the most common protein in mammals,…
Programmable Biofilm-Based Materials That Self-Assemble
A newly published study details how researchers at Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University are using biofilms to create self-healing materials and…
Researchers Reverse Diabetic Symptoms in Mice
In a new study, researchers successfully engrafted insulin-producing cells into a diabetic mouse model, reversing diabetic symptoms in the animal in as little as 10…
3-D Scaffold That Could Monitor Electrical Activity of Engineered Tissue
Designed by a team of scientists from Harvard, MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital, electronic sensors made of silicon nanowires could be used to monitor electrical…
Designing Biomaterials Both High in Rigidity and Bioactivity
In a newly published study, a team of researchers describe their new approach towards creating polymeric thin film biomaterials that achieve mechanical rigidity in conjunction…
Shape Determines Therapeutic Properties of Engineered Cells
In a recently published study, MIT scientists show that implanted cells’ therapeutic properties depend on their shape, which is determined by the type of scaffold…
Nanoparticle-Based System Advances Stem Cell Culture Techniques
By packaging Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF) inside biodegradable nanoparticles, scientists developed a nanoparticle-based system to deliver growth factors to stem cells in culture, resulting in…
Researchers use Nanotechnology to Harness the Natural Light Produced by Fireflies
By designing a way to chemically attach genetically manipulated luciferase enzymes directly to the surface of nanorods, scientists at Syracuse University found a new way…
Zeolite Catalyst Creates P-Xylene from Biomass
Chemical engineers at UMass Amherst have discovered a high-yield method of making plastic bottles from biomass. By using a zeolite catalyst capable of transforming glucose…
High Quality Microlenses from Calcium Carbonate Structures
By studying the brittlestar Ophiocoma wendtii, whose body is covered with tiny crystalline lenses made of calcium carbonate, scientists were able to create high quality…