New Atlas

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Injectable hydrogel could keep root canals from killing teeth

Ben Coxworth August 22, 2018

When a root canal is performed, the infected dental pulp inside a tooth is replaced with tiny rubber rods – unfortunately this leaves the tooth dead, and thus likely to become infected again. A new procedure, however, may be able to keep such teeth alive and strong.

Traditional root canals, such as this one, leave teeth without any living soft tissue inside

Medical

Stem cell-loaded hydrogel boosts healing process of aging muscles

Michael Irving August 20, 2018

Georgia Tech researchers have developed a hydrogel that holds muscle stem cells, and by injecting this near the site of a muscle injury they can get to work repairing it. The team says the technique could be effective at treating injuries in the elderly and people with muscular dystrophy.

A hydrogel structure successfully introduces new muscle stem cells, which helps patch up damage in older ...

Science

Humidity-hungry hydrogel could be the next cool thing

Ben Coxworth May 30, 2018

Many people will say, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." It was with this in mind that scientists at the National University of Singapore recently created a hydrogel that draws moisture from the air, making the heat more tolerable … but the material also has a few other tricks up its sleeve.

Assistant Professor Tan Swee Ching (left) and his team, with a sample of the hydrogel

Medical

Injectable hydrogel helps brain tissue regrow after stroke in mice

Michael Irving May 21, 2018

The brain may be an incredible organ, but it struggles to repair itself after sustaining damage from a stroke. Now, researchers from UCLA have developed an injectable hydrogel that can coax healthy tissue to patch up damage by helping regenerate new brain tissue, nerve fibers and blood vessels.

A photomicrograph of the new tissue grown in the stroke-damaged cavity of a mouse brain: the ...

Materials

3D-printed hydrogel humanoid goes for an underwater walk

Michael Irving May 20, 2018

Hydrogels could make for robots that are more flexible, safer to be around and simpler to build and use. Now researchers at Rutgers University have developed a smart gel that can be 3D printed into a variety of shapes, and electrically-activated to make it “walk” underwater, grab and move objects.

Rutger University researchers have created a humanoid figure out of a smart gel that can walk ...

Medical

Cancer-killing hydrogel stays in place until the job is done

Michael Irving March 8, 2018

The cure for cancer might have been inside us all along – our immune system. The trick of immunotherapy is to boost it to find and destroy those rogue cells. A new hydrogel has been developed that can be injected directly to the site of a tumor, slowly releasing immunotherapy drugs for longer.

A scanning electron microscope image of the injectable cancer-fighting hydrogel, dubbed STINGel

Materials

Fiber-reinforced hydrogel is 5 times stronger than steel

David Szondy February 26, 2017

Scientists at Hokkaido University have developed a new set of hydrogel composites that combine gels with woven fiber fabric to create a material that is five times stronger than carbon steel.

The newly developed fiber-reinforced hydrogel consists of polyampholyte gels and glass fiber fabric

Materials

Stanford's new nontoxic hydrogels are made to scale

Michael Irving November 30, 2016

As flexible, absorbent and versatile as they are, manufacturing hydrogels can be costly and hard to scale up. Now, scientists at Stanford have developed new hydrogels made from common and inexpensive natural materials, which are easily adjusted for a range of applications.

Medical

Injectable hydrogel shores up damaged hearts

Tyler MacDonald August 22, 2016

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have taken yet another step forward through the development of injectable gels that can strengthen areas most weakened by heart attacks and minimize the chances of heart failure.

Researchers have developed a stiff, long lasting gel that could be used to protect heart tissue ...

Science

Anti-cancer patch provides triple attack therapy to tumor sites

Chris Wood July 27, 2016

A new hydrogel patch could provide a more targeted, triple-therapy approach to treating tumors. With benefits to using the patch both before and after tumor removal, and with tests of laboratory mice showing extremely positive results, the patch could have a big impact on cancer treatment.

The patch contains specially-designed nanorods and nanospheres, seen here attacking the tumor cells