MIT: Researchers have developed a new way of making tough — but soft and
wet — biocompatible materials, called “hydrogels,” into complex and
intricately patterned shapes. The process might lead to injectable
materials for delivering drugs or cells into the body; scaffolds for
regenerating load-bearing tissues; or tough but flexible actuators for
future robots, the researchers say. The new process is described in a paper in the journal
Advanced Materials,
co-authored by MIT associate professor of mechanical engineering Xuanhe
Zhao and colleagues at MIT, Duke University, and Columbia University.
