Patch Delivers Insulin in Cheeks

A polymer fiber mat is activated by heat to release drugs.

Wearable Sensors Measure Body Position

Scientists have created wearable, stitchable, and sensitive sensors from flexible polymers and bundles of carbon fiber.

Woven Nanotube Fibers Turn Heat into Power

Flexible thermoelectric generators could be a useful way to make carbon "green."

Programmable Fibers Expand Possibilties for Fabrics

The fabric-fiber has digital capabilities to collect, store, and analyze data using a neural network.

Surgical Sutures Inspired by Human Tendons

Next-generation sutures can deliver drugs, prevent infections, and monitor wounds.

Textile Sensor Patch Could Detect Pressure Points for Amputees

A textile sensor can detect pressure points on the socket of a prosthetic limb.

3D Printed ‘Invisible’ Fibers Can Sense Breath, Sound, and Cells

Researchers have used 3D printing to make electronic fibers, each 100 times thinner than a human hair, to create non-contact, wearable, portable respiratory sensors.

Smart Textiles Powered by Soft Transmission Lines

The fibers measure subtle and complex fabric deformations.

Automated Production of Advanced Materials

Engineers have developed an automated way to produce polymers, making it much easier to create advanced materials aimed at improving human health. The innovation is a critical step in pushing...

‘Hyper Glue’ Could Be Used for Medical Implants

Researchers hope to make everything from protective clothing to medical implants stronger and more corrosion resistant thanks to a newly developed hyper glue formula. The team of...

Novel Applications of Electrospinning Could Improve Devices

When you visit Andrew Steckl’s lab at the University of Cincinnati, you see a nondescript glass box that weaves together different fibers. He sees endless possibility.

High-Volume Electrospinning Production Platform for Medical Devices

A newly developed platform has been designed for large-scale industrial manufacturing of reproducible and scalable fiber-based scaffolds for Class I, II and III medical...

Wearable Battery Uses Super-Coiled Fibers

Super-elastic multifunctional super-coiled fibers can stretch up to 16 times maximum and maintain electronic characteristics at the same time. The new fibers can be used in various electronic...

Silver Nanowires Promise More Comfortable Smart Textiles

Researchers have developed a simple, scalable, and low-cost capillary-driven self-assembly method to prepare flexible and stretchable conductive fibers that have applications in...

Researchers Map Light and Sound Wave Interactions in Optical Fibers

Optical fibers make the Internet happen. They are fine threads of glass, as thin as a human hair, produced to transmit light. Optical fibers carry thousands of gigabits of...

Engineers Design Color-Changing Compression Bandage

Compression therapy is a standard form of treatment for patients who suffer from venous ulcers and other conditions in which veins struggle to return blood from the lower extremities....

Elastic Fiber Revolutionizes Smart Clothes

Scientists have found a fast and simple way to make super-elastic, multi-material, high-performance fibers. Their fibers have already been used as sensors on robotic fingers and in clothing. This...

Spider Silk Key to New Bone-Fixing Composite

Researchers have created a biodegradable composite made of silk fibers that can be used to repair broken load-bearing bones without the complications sometimes presented by other materials.

Running Titanium and Other Exotic Metals at Faster Speeds

High-speed machining is typically used in medical equipment manufacturing where machinists often work with exotic alloys and harder metals like titanium.

3D Printed Microfibers Could Provide Structure for Artificially Grown Body Part

Much as a frame provides structural support for a house and the chassis provides strength and shape for a car, a team of engineers believe they have a way to...

Highly Sensitive Optical Fiber Pressure Sensors with Potential for Cardiology and Other Medical Applications

Optical fibers. To the average person, the phrase might conjure up an image of glowing hairs twisted artistically into a beautiful...

Stronger Silk Offers Biomedical Applications

Engineers have found they can make a material that is more than twice as stiff as its natural counterpart and can be shaped into complex structures such as meshes and lattices.

Electroactive Material for Wound Healing

NASA Langley Research Center’s Technology Gateway
Hampton, VA

This technology uses electrical activity to facilitate the wound-healing process while protecting the wound. The bandage is made...

Quartet H2O LDD Actively Cooled Lateral Surgical Fiber Optic

Infrared surgical lasers, e.g., CTH:YAG @ 2100 nm and TM:YAG @ 2000 nm, are wonderful tools for minimally invasive surgery such as laser vaporization of hyperplastic prostate...

3D-Printing Materials Offer Safer Option for Wound Care

Cellulose nanofibrils have properties that can improve the characteristics of bio-based 3D printing pastes. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is developing a 3D wound care...

Top 10 Tips for Developing Implantable Medical Textiles

Medical device engineers are increasingly gravitating toward biomedical textiles to aid in implant performance, including cardiovascular applications such as structural heart implants...

Portable Nanofiber Device Offers Precise Control for Fabricating 3D Tissue

There are many ways to make nanofibers. These versatile materials — whose target applications include everything from tissue engineering to bulletproof vests —...

Draw-Tower Gratings in Multicore Fiber: A Paradigm Shift in Curvature Sensing

Fiber-optic curvature sensing has great potential for a number of medical and industrial applications because alternative solutions are practically nonexistent, at...

Microgel Composite Could Overcome Fibrin Blockade to Accelerate Healing

In regenerative medicine, the ideal repair material would offer properties that seem impossibly contradictory. It must be rigid and robust enough to be manipulated...