Innovative paper-like, battery-free, AI-enabled sensor for holistic wound monitoring

Nanowerk  June 26, 2023 Researchers in Singapore developed a paper-like battery-free in situ AI-enabled multiplexed (PETAL) sensor for holistic wound assessment by leveraging deep learning algorithms. This sensor consisted of a wax-printed paper panel with five colorimetric sensors for temperature, pH, trimethylamine, uric acid, and moisture. Sensor images captured by a mobile phone were analyzed by neural network–based machine learning algorithms to determine healing status. For ex situ detection via exudates collected from rat perturbed wounds and burn wounds, the PETAL sensor could classify healing versus nonhealing status with an accuracy as high as 97%. With the sensor patches attached […]

MIT engineers develop a soft, printable, metal-free electrode

MIT News  June 15, 2023 Conducting polymer hydrogels have emerged as a promising candidate for bioelectronic interfacing with biological systems. Despite the recent advances, the development of hydrogels with both excellent electrical and mechanical properties in physiological environments is still challenging. An international team of researchers led by MIT has developed a bi-continuous conducting polymer hydrogel that simultaneously achieves high electrical conductivity, stretchability, and fracture toughness in physiological environments. It is readily applicable to advanced fabrication methods including 3D printing. Enabled by these properties, they demonstrated multi-material 3D printing of monolithic all-hydrogel bioelectronic interfaces for long-term electrophysiological recording and stimulation […]

The ‘invisible’ cellulose coatings that mitigate surface transmission of pathogens

Phys.org  May 17, 2023 Researchers in the UK have developed antimicrobial surface film based on sustainable micro fibrillated cellulose. The porosity, and microstructure of the film can be modulated by the formulations and the coating process. They observed a threefold reduction in water contact angles and accelerated water evaporation kinetics on the cellulose film (more than 50% faster than that on a flat glass surface). It exhibited a rapid inactivation effect against SARS-CoV-2 in 5 minutes, following deposition of virus-loaded droplets, and an exceptional ability to reduce contact transfer of liquid, e.g., respiratory droplets, to surfaces such as an artificial […]

Cell imaging could provide next step for developing synthetic photosynthesis

Phys.org  April 5, 2023 Carboxysomes are proteinaceous bacterial microcompartments that sequester the key enzymes for carbon fixation in cyanobacteria and some proteobacteria. Despite their significance in carbon fixation and great bioengineering potentials, the structural understanding of native carboxysomes is currently limited to low-resolution studies. An international team of researchers (UK, Germany, Austria) has characterized a native α-carboxysome from a marine cyanobacterium by single-particle cryoelectron microscopy. They have determined the structure of its RuBisCO enzyme, and obtained low-resolution maps of its icosahedral shell, and its concentric interior organization. They proposed a complete atomic model of an intact carboxysome, providing insight into […]

This Incredible Tiny Robot Can Locate And Capture Individual Cells

Science Alert  April 8, 2023 While dielectrophoretic (DEP)-based cargo manipulation can be achieved at high-solution conductivity, electrical propulsion of these micromotors becomes ineffective at solution conductivities. Researchers in Israel found that combination of a rotating magnetic field and electric field results in enhanced micromotor mobility and steering control through tuning of the electric field frequency. They demonstrated the micromotor’s ability of identifying apoptotic cell among viable and necrotic cells based on their dielectrophoretic difference. This enabled analysis of apoptotic status in the single-cell samples for drug discovery, cell therapeutics, and immunotherapy. According to the researcher’s hybrid micromotor approach for label-free […]

The powerhouse of the future: Artificial cells

Phys.org  March 28, 2023 Sustainable energy conversion modules are the main challenges for building complex reaction cascades in artificial cells. Recent advances in biotechnology have enabled this sustainable energy supply, especially the adenosine triphosphate (ATP), by mimicking the organelles, which are the core structures for energy conversion in living cells. Three components are mainly shared by the artificial organelles: the membrane compartment separating the inner and outer parts, membrane proteins for proton translocation, and the molecular rotary machine for ATP synthesis. Depending on the initiation factors, they are further categorized into artificial mitochondrion and artificial chloroplasts, which use chemical nutrients […]

Physicists model cell migration to learn how cancer cells navigate tissue

Phys.org  January 5, 2023 To learn more about how cancer cells size up surrounding tissue for stiffness and adapt their gecko-like movements in response a team of researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute developed a multiscale chemo mechanical whole-cell theory for mesenchymal migration. They developed a framework that coupled the subcellular focal adhesion dynamics at the cell-substrate interface with the cellular cytoskeletal mechanics and the chemical signaling pathways involving Rho GTPase proteins. In the presence of stiffness gradients and absence of chemical polarization, the cell moved toward an optimally stiff region from softer regions during durotaxis and from stiffer regions during […]

Producing ‘green’ energy — literally — from living plant ‘bio-solar cells’

Science Daily  December 13, 2022 Harvesting an electrical current from biological photosynthetic systems is typically achieved by immersion of the system into an electrolyte solution. Researchers in Israel used the thick water-preserving outer cuticle of the succulent Corpuscularia lehmannii serves as the electrochemical container, the inner water content as the electrolyte into which an iron anode and platinum cathode were introduced. They produced up to 20 μA/cm2 bias-free photocurrent. When 0.5 V bias was added to the iron anode, the current density increased ∼10-fold, and evolved hydrogen gas could be collected with a Faradaic efficiency of 2.1 and 3.5% in […]

Transforming bacterial cells into living artificial neural circuits

Phys.org  November 14, 2022 Neuro-inspired models can transform synthetic gene circuit design in a manner that is reliable, efficient in resource utilization, and readily reconfigurable for different tasks. To this end, an international team of researchers (Israel, USA – MIT) has introduced the perceptgene, a perceptron that computes in the logarithmic domain, which enables efficient implementation of artificial neural networks in Escherichia coli cells. They successfully modified perceptgene parameters to create devices that encode a minimum, maximum, and average of analog inputs. With these devices, they created multi-layer perceptgene circuits that compute a soft majority function, perform an analog-to-digital conversion, […]

Research team follows nearly 8,000 paths towards better cell factories

Phys.org  April 26, 2022 The inhibitory compounds found in hydrolysates in biomass substantially influence the performance of a cell factory and the economic feasibility of lignocellulosic biofuels and chemicals. Researchers in Sweden analyzed data on Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants engineered for altered tolerance towards the most common inhibitors found in lignocellulosic hydrolysates: acetic acid, formic acid, furans, and phenolic compounds. The mutants included in the analysis had been shown to display increased or decreased tolerance to individual inhibitors or combinations of inhibitors found in lignocellulosic hydrolysates. Genetic engineering aimed at improving inhibitor or hydrolysate tolerance altered the specific growth rate or […]