Podcast: Fast Healing Bandages For Astronauts & Organs

15 Feb, 2022

A new MIT-designed surgical sticky tape can be applied quickly and easily, like duct tape to a pipe, to repair leaks and tears in the gastrointestinal tract and other tissues and organs. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

In this episode, we talk about how a new handheld 3D printer can revolutionize wound treatment in space and the duct tape inspired gel aiming to eliminate complications caused by gastrointestinal surgery.

In this episode, we talk about how a new handheld 3D printer can revolutionize wound treatment in space and the duct tape inspired gel aiming to eliminate complications caused by gastrointestinal surgery. As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.

This podcast is sponsored by Mouser Electronics.

EPISODE NOTES

(2:31) - 3D Printed Bio-Plaster

(9:38) - Duct Tape Sutures

Episode 57 was brought to you by Mouser Electronics, Farbod & Daniel’s favorite electronics distributor. Click here to read the article discussing how 3D printing is bringing upon the dawn of creativity.

About the podcast:

Every day, some of the most innovative universities, companies, and individual technology developers share their knowledge on Wevolver. To ensure we can also provide this knowledge for the growing group of podcast listeners, we started a collaboration with two young engineers, Daniel Scott Mitchell & Farbod Moghaddam who discuss the most interesting content in this podcast series.

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3D-printed bio-plaster

Human cells in a 3D printer that can be used to cover wounds like a sticking plaster – this is the long-term goal of the Bioprint FirstAid experiment. As part of his 'Cosmic Kiss' mission, German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer has now carried out this series of experiments on the ISS.

Diana Gonzalez

fromDLR

03 Feb, 2022

This article was discussed in our Next Byte podcast.

The full article will continue below.

Human cells in a 3D printer that can be used to cover wounds like a sticking plaster – this is the long-term goal of the Bioprint FirstAid experiment. As part of his 'Cosmic Kiss' mission, German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer has now carried out this series of experiments on the International Space Station ISS. The mobile handheld device is intended to significantly improve wound treatment on space missions, but also in daily medical use on Earth. "With Bioprint FirstAid, this innovative technology has now been tested under space conditions for the first time," says Michael Becker, Bioprint FirstAid Project Manager for the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). "Bioprinting is an important step towards personalised medicine in space and on Earth."

The Bioprinter FirstAid device. Credit: OHB

The Bioprinter can be operated manually and consists of a handle, a print head, guide wheels and two cartridges for the bio-ink that is used to produce the plaster-like wound covering. During the experiment on the ISS, this ink was first applied to a foil on Matthias Maurer's leg. Two bio-inks with different compositions and two different print heads were used. "The technology experiment has not yet used real human cells in this first step, but fluorescent microparticles," says Becker. "The findings will help scientists to further develop the technology and enable applications for patients."

Improved wound healing in space and on Earth

Due to its compact design and easy, mobile use, the printing technology has great potential not only for use in medical practices and clinics, but also for flexible treatment in remote locations or places that are difficult to access. Thus, the Bioprin

Image: The development of the Janus Tough Adhesive originally was inspired by the tough mucus produced by the Dusky Arion (Arion subfucus) slug. Shown here, it is applied to a tendon within a joint, where its two sides, respectively, enable tight adhesion to tendon tissue and gliding of the protected tendon within its normal joint environment. Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Towards more effective tendon repair with a multi-functional biomaterial

A Janus-faced biomaterial that firmly adheres to injured tendons and helps them glide, also slowly releases drugs to tendon cells, which could improve repair in patients across multiple injuries

Benjamin Boettner

fromHarvard University

05 Jan, 2022

Biomedical Devices

- healthcare

- materials

Many of us have injured a tendon either abruptly during sports activities, or as a result of daily wear-and-tear from overusing them. Torn or strained tendons – most commonly Achilles, flexor, or rotator cuff tendons – can cause persistent pain, and take a long time to heal after surgeries, especially in the elderly. This is not surprising since the brilliant white cords that connect our muscles to our bones have to regenerate their ability to transmit the strong mechanical forces that allow our joints to move.

There is an acute, unmet medical need for more effective therapies to treat tendon injuries. Despite advances in surgical methods, new graft therapies, and more effective rehabilitation, severely injured tendons rarely regain the structural integrity and mechanical strength of healthy tendons, which often places a chronic burden on patients.

Now, a collaborative research team led by David Mooney, the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Core Faculty member at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Eckhard Weber, of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), and Daniel Kaufmann, of the Novartis Technical Research and Development, developed a new biomaterial-based tendon therapy that addresses key challenges in the regeneration process. The two-sided material firmly adheres to tendons with one of its specifically engineered surfaces, while allowing normal gliding of healing tendons with its opposite mechanically tough yet elastic surface. Importantly, “Janus Tough Adhesives” (JTAs) can also act as high-capacity drug depots, slowly releasing small molecules into tendon tissue to help facilitate healing. The researchers compellingly demonstrated the regenerative abilities of drug-free and drug-loaded JTA versions in a series of injury-relevant, pre-clinical tendon models, and reported

Podcast: Fast Healing Bandages For Astronauts & Organs

In this episode, we talk about how a new handheld 3D printer can revolutionize wound treatment in space and the duct tape inspired gel aiming to eliminate complications caused by gastrointestinal surgery.

EPISODE NOTES

Improved wound healing in space and on Earth

Engineers develop surgical "duct tape" as an alternative to sutures

Objects can now be 3D-printed in opaque resin

Biohybrid fish made from human cardiac cells swims like the heart beats

In this episode, we talk about how a new handheld 3D printer can revolutionize wound treatment in space and the duct tape inspired gel aiming to eliminate complications caused by gastrointestinal surgery.

EPISODE NOTES

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