Explore more about: Biomaterials

NIBIB-funded researchers are working to make bladder surgeries better, tackling the issue from two vantage points: improving bladder function using a biodegradable construct that facilitates tissue regeneration, and enhancing patient monitoring by developing an implantable bladder sensor.

Diabetic wounds are slow-healing, potentially life-threatening complications with limited treatment options. But a two-step, nanomaterial-based strategy may open doors to better care.

A team of scientists have developed a noninvasive alternative to current weight-loss options—an oral capsule containing a tiny vibrating motor that is designed to stimulate the stomach to produce the same sense of fullness people experience after eating a large meal.

Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University have developed a new synergistic approach to revascularization that combines a new framework made from granular hydrogels with micropuncture, a surgical technique. Their preclinical method could rapidly grow organized blood vessels in live rats.

Researchers have developed sugar-coated gold nanoparticles to both image and destroy biofilms. In a study, they used the nanoparticles on the teeth and wounded skin of rats and mice, eliminating biofilms in as little as one minute and outperforming common antimicrobials.

NIH-funded researchers have outlined a method to print biocompatible structures through thick, multi-layered tissues using focused ultrasound.

Introducing medical devices — commonly made of materials such as titanium, silicone, or collagen — into our bodies can elicit a host of different immune responses. While some responses can harm our bodies, others can help heal them. A new study fills in a critical piece of the puzzle.

Dendritic cells are key orchestrators of the immune response, but most vaccination strategies don’t effectively target them. NIBIB-funded researchers have developed biodegradable nanoparticles that are designed to deliver mRNA cargo to dendritic cells in the spleen. Combined with another type of immunotherapy, their vaccine had robust antitumor effects in multiple mouse models.

Tissue engineering research has uncovered that a skin cell type could be a new therapeutic target to accelerate the healing of burns and possibly other wounds.

NIBIB has established the Center for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration—BETA Center, a new intramural research program to solve a range of medicine’s most pressing problems. The BETA Center will serve the wider NIH intramural research program as a biotechnology resource and catalyst for NIH research discoveries.