Biomaterials
Team scales up production of biopolymer microthreads
May 1, 2012 6:48 am | News | CommentsDevelopment of new therapies for a range of medical conditions, including sports injuries and heart attacks, could depend on a new production-scale microthread extruder developed by a team of graduate students and biomedical engineering faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The microthreads would support tissue regeneration, wound healing, and cell therapy.
Coating for hip implants could prevent premature failure
April 19, 2012 5:53 am | by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office | News | CommentsMore than a million Americans receive an artificial hip or knee prosthesis each year, but tens of thousands of people need early replacements because of loosening joints. To help minimize these operations, a team of chemical engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a thin, layered coating for implants that helps promote bone growth.
Lanthanides expand list of upconverting luminescent particles
April 13, 2012 3:14 am | News | CommentsThe light that a luminescent particle emits is usually less energetic than the light that it absorbs. Some applications require the emitted light to be more energetic, but this so-called upconversion process has been observed in only a small handful of materials. Researchers in Singapore have recently succeeded in expanding this list of upconversion materials by using different lanthanides at different stages of conversion.
Carbon nanotubes can double growth of cell cultures
April 4, 2012 3:55 pm | News | CommentsAccording to recent first-of-its-kind research results, a dose of carbon nanotubes can more than double the growth rate of plant cell cultures. Previous work at the University of Arkansas showed that multi-walled carbon nanotubes can penetrate the thick coatings of seeds. It turns out they can also stimulate germination and growth in plant cell cultures.
Microlenses built in a test tube
March 26, 2012 8:05 am | News | CommentsTaking inspiration from the brittlestar, a sea creature that “sees” using crystalline lenses made of calcium carbonate, a team of scientists have discovered that they can grow tiny uniform hemispheric calcium carbonate thin films on a solution. Compatible with biological systems, the microlenses are defect free.
NIST experts measure practicality of DNA origami
March 7, 2012 8:26 am | News | CommentsWhile most researchers in nanomanufacturing are working to demonstrate what’s possible, researchers NIST are trying to determine what’s realistic. Results of their measurements of a promising self-assembly technique known as DNA origami show that current methods are too slow and inaccurate for use in certain industries, such semiconductor lithography.
New hydrogel heals itself in seconds
March 7, 2012 8:19 am | News | CommentsBioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have invented a self-healing hydrogel that binds quickly, as easily as Velcro, and forms a bond strong enough to withstand repeated stretching. Computer simulations of the gel network helped them discover the key to its properties: the length of side chain molecules, or fingers.
Engineer discovers spider silk conducts heat
March 5, 2012 7:38 am | News | CommentsXinwei Wang, an Iowa State University associate professor of mechanical engineering, is leading a study that found spider silk is very good at transferring heat. Spider silk, in fact, conducts heat as well or better than most metals.
Cells on film
February 27, 2012 3:19 am | News | CommentsScientists at RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Japan, with help from colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, have invented a polymer film loaded with antibodies that can capture tumor cells. This could be an important diagnostic tool because during metastasis cancerous tumor cells float around the bloodstream, nearly impossible to detect.
Team magnetizes carbon nanoparticles for cancer therapy
February 24, 2012 7:25 am | News | CommentsCarbon nanoparticles can be coated to make them attach to cancer cells, but getting them in the correct position can be difficult. A research team in Texas has magnetized nanoparticles so that they can be moved with a magnetic field. Administered using fiber optics, the method is non-destructive to healthy cells and carbon nanoparticles also fluoresce.
First results from large-scale molecular science R & D effort released
February 23, 2012 6:28 am | News | CommentsThe TRR 61 project has been keeping about 150 scientists in Germany and China busy since 2008. The goal is to understand how large natural systems, such as biorganisms are assembled from numerous diverse small molecular structures. The first papers from the first stage of the project, which looks at self-assembly mechanisms, have recently been published.
Researchers find the healing properties of a spider's web
February 17, 2012 5:13 am | News | CommentsThe study of spider webs has led to a discovery that will generate new types of medical sutures embedded with medication. University of Akron scientists have developed a novel biocompatible thread material similar to a specific kind of silk spun by an orb spider.
The Indispensable Biomaterial
February 15, 2012 9:44 am | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsWidely used in the medical field, mechanically complex silicone elastomers are slowly giving up their secrets and becoming ubiquitous.
Insect-inspired Biomaterial Could Hold Trash, or Tissue
February 14, 2012 11:16 am | Articles | CommentsA biodegradable, biocompatible material that replicates the strength, toughness, and versatility of an insect cuticle could one day replace plastics in consumer products, and be used safely in medical applications.
Lubricant mystery solved; longer joint life possible
February 14, 2012 11:11 am | Articles | CommentsProsthetic materials for hips, which include metals, polymers, and ceramics, have a lifetime typically exceeding 10 years. However, beyond 10 years the failure rate generally increases. Engineers and physicians have discovered that graphitic carbon is a key element in a lubricating layer that forms on metal-on-metal hip implants.
Nanoscale Biological Coating Stops Bleeding Quickly
February 14, 2012 10:59 am | Articles | CommentsA nanoscale biological coating that includes a clotting agent found in blood can halt bleeding nearly instantaneously, an advance that could improve survival rates for soldiers injured in battle.
Engineers find inspiration for new materials in piranha-proof armor
February 9, 2012 4:41 am | News | CommentsIt's a matchup worthy of a late-night cable movie: Put a school of starving piranha and a 300-lb fish together, and who comes out the winner? The surprising answer—given the notorious guillotine-like bite of the piranha—is Brazil's massive Arapaima fish. The secret to Arapaima 's success lies in its intricately designed scales, which could provide "bioinspiration" for engineers looking to develop flexible ceramics.
Biological computer developed to encrypt and decipher images
February 7, 2012 10:40 am | News | CommentsScientists at The Scripps Research Institute in California and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology have developed a "biological computer" made entirely from biomolecules that is capable of deciphering images encrypted on DNA chips. Although DNA has been used for encryption in the past, this is the first experimental demonstration of a molecular cryptosystem of images based on DNA computing.
Scientists make strides toward fixing infant hearts
February 6, 2012 4:28 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Rice University and Texas Children's Hospital have turned stem cells from amniotic fluid into cells that form blood vessels. Their success offers hope that such stem cells may be used to grow tissue patches to repair infant hearts.
Spider web’s strength lies in more than just the silk
February 1, 2012 3:03 pm | News | CommentsWhile researchers have long known of the incredible strength of spider silk, the robust nature of the tiny filaments cannot alone explain how webs survive multiple tears and winds that exceed hurricane strength. A combination of computer simulations and new experimental observations have revealed more about the sacrificial beams and stress-dependent materials that make silk so strong.
Study: Extracellular matrix causes biofilm growth
January 23, 2012 10:22 am | News | CommentsThrough experiment and mathematical analysis, Harvard University researchers have shown that the extracellular matrix, a mesh of proteins and sugars that can form outside bacterial cells, creates osmotic pressure, forcing biofilms to swell and spread. The mechanism is powerful, sometimes causing five-fold size increases in less than a day.
DNA motor programmed to navigate a network of tracks
January 23, 2012 6:27 am | News | CommentsExpanding on previous work with engines traveling on straight tracks, a team of researchers at Kyoto University and the University of Oxford, U.K., have successfully used DNA building blocks to construct a motor capable of navigating a programmable network of tracks with multiple switches.
Chemistry professor developing sustainable bioplastics
January 19, 2012 3:17 am | by Emily Wilmsen, Colorado State University | News | CommentsA Colorado State University chemistry professor has developed several patent-pending chemical processes that would create sustainable bioplastics from renewable resources for use on everything from optical fibers and contact lenses to furniture and automobile parts.
A new way to stop the bleeding
January 10, 2012 2:48 am | by Anne Trafton, MIT News Office | News | CommentsMassachusetts Institute of Technology engineers have developed a nanoscale biological coating that can halt bleeding nearly instantaneously, an advance that could dramatically improve survival rates for soldiers injured in battle.
Manipulating way bacteria 'talk' could have practical applications
January 4, 2012 3:44 am | News | CommentsBy manipulating the way bacteria "talk" to each other, researchers at Texas A&M University have achieved an unprecedented degree of control over the formation and dispersal of biofilms—a finding with potentially significant health and industrial applications, particularly to bioreactor technology.
