Wanwan\u00a0Qiu,\u00a0Qin\u00a0and M\u00fcller\u2019s former doctoral student,\u00a0developed the connecting molecule specifically for this application.\u00a0\u201cIt enables rapid structuring of hydrogels in the sub-micrometre range,\u201d\u00a0she says. The polymer chains are linked as soon as laser pulses of a certain wavelength hit the hydrogel. The irradiated areas\u00a0immediately\u00a0become solid, while the non-irradiated parts can be washed out later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jelly\u00a0can be\u00a0set\u00a0at\u00a0world-record\u00a0speed\u00a0 <\/p>\n
In this way, the researchers can use the laser beam to print any shapes and structures into the hydrogel with\u00a0very fine\u00a0resolution and extreme precision. The structures can be as small as 500 nanometres.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHydrogels\u00a0resemble\u00a0jelly,\u00a0making them\u00a0difficult to\u00a0shape,\u201d\u00a0says ETH Professor Qin.\u00a0\u201cWith our\u00a0newly developed\u00a0connecting\u00a0molecule, we can now not only structure the hydrogel in a stable and extremely fine manner but also produce it at high writing speeds\u00a0of up to 400 millimetres per second. That\u2019s a new world record.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Structures in the nanometre range\u00a0 <\/p>\n
In their study, the researchers\u00a0created\u00a0complex,\u00a0structured hydrogels that\u00a0resemble\u00a0real bone and\u00a0feature\u00a0a fine network of bone trabeculae.\u00a0They\u00a0used\u00a0medical imaging\u00a0as a template.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even healthy natural bone is criss-crossed by a fine network of channels that are only nanometres thick and filled with fluid.\u00a0\u201cA piece of bone the size of a dice contains 74 kilometres of tunnels,\u201d\u00a0says Qin. By way of comparison, the longest railway tunnel in the world, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, measures 54 kilometres.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Material is biocompatible\u00a0 <\/p>\n
So far, the researchers have tested the material\u00a0only\u00a0in a test tube.\u00a0Results\u00a0showed that bone-forming cells\u00a0rapidly\u00a0colonise the structured hydrogel and begin forming\u00a0collagen,\u00a0a\u00a0vital\u00a0component\u00a0of bone. The tests also\u00a0confirmed\u00a0that the material is biocompatible and does not damage the bone-forming cells.\u00a0The researchers have patented\u00a0the base material\u00a0and plan to make it available to the medical industry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The researcher\u2019s\u00a0declared\u00a0goal is for the hydrogel-based implant to one day be used in clinics to repair broken bones. However,\u00a0more work is needed. Qin\u00a0is preparing to\u00a0conduct animal tests in collaboration with the AO Research Institute Davos. The\u00a0team\u00a0aims\u00a0to\u00a0determine\u00a0whether their new bone repair material promotes the migration of bone-forming cells in living organisms and whether it\u00a0restores\u00a0bone strength over time.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wanwan\u00a0Qiu,\u00a0Qin\u00a0and M\u00fcller\u2019s former doctoral student,\u00a0developed the connecting molecule specifically for this application.\u00a0\u201cIt enables rapid structuring of hydrogels in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3404,5807,10005,5779,1202,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-22852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zurich","8":"tag-chemistry","9":"tag-d-hest","10":"tag-materials-science","11":"tag-medicine","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-zurich"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}