biomedical engineers have developed a range of surgical sealants that can bond tissues to stop leakages. Yet, "currently available sealants are not suitable for most surgical applications and they do not work alone without the need for suturing or stapling because they lack an optimal combination of elasticity, tissue adhesion and strength. Using our expertise in creating materials for regenerative medicine, we aimed to create an actual fix for this problem in a multi-disciplinary effort with clinicians and bioengineers," said Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., Associate Faculty member at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.
Recently published in Science Translational Medicine, a study performed by a team led by Khademhosseini at the Wyss Institute and Nasim Annabi, Ph.D., at Northeastern University presents a robust solution for the efficient repair of wounds in mechanically challenging body areas. The team also included researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston and the University of Sydney in Australia. The researchers demonstrated that a sealant, based on elastin—a human, resilience-imparting protein present in all elastic tissues such as the wall of arteries, skin, and lungs—can be photochemically tuned to effectively seal incisions in arteries and lungs of rats and to repair wounds in the lungs of pigs, all suture and staple-free.
The prank possibilities of this glue are endless.
N. Annabi el al., Engineering a highly elastic human protein–based sealant for surgical applications, Science Translational Medicine (2017). DOI:10.1126/scitranslmed.aai7466
(Score: 2, Funny) by rylyeh on Thursday October 05 2017, @11:03PM
Delicious, nutritious, and really sticks to your ribs.
"a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."