Research Highlight
Injectable tissue prosthesis
for instantaneous closed-loop rehabilitation
(Nature 2023)
We developed an injectable tissue prosthesis with instantaneous bidirectional electrical conduction in the neuromuscular system. The soft and injectable prosthesis is composed of a biocompatible hydrogel with unique phenylboratemediated multiple crosslinking, such as irreversible yet freely rearrangeable biphenyl bonds and reversible coordinate bonds with conductive gold nanoparticles formed in situ by cross-coupling. Closed-loop robot-assisted rehabilitation by injecting this prosthetic material is successfully demonstrated in the early stage of severe muscle injury in rats, and accelerated tissue repair is achieved in the later stage.
Adhesive bioelectronics
for sutureless
epicardial interfacing
(Nature Electronics, 2023)
Bioadhesive devices can be used to create conformable tissue–device interfaces without suturing. However, the development of such technology faces challenges related to the need for external stimuli or long periods of time for tissue adhesion, fatigue-related breakdown of the stretchable electrodes and the use of solid substrates with non-uniform surface coverage of the tissue. We report a bioelectronic patch that is capable of instantaneous and conformable tissue adhesion on a heart for precise cardiac monitoring.
Molecular rationale for the design of instantaneous, strain-tolerant polymeric adhesive in a stretchable underwater human–machine interface
(ACS Nano 2022)
In this study, we report an instantaneous polymeric adhesive with high strain tolerance (termed as iPASTE) even in a stretchable human–machine interface. The iPASTE consists of two biocompatible and eco-friendly polymers, linearly oligomerized green tea extracts, and poly(ethylene glycol) for densely assembled networks via dynamic and reversible hydrogen bonds. Based on the strain-tolerant adhesion of iPASTE, a subaqueous interactive human–machine interface integrated with a robot arm and a gold nanomembrane strain-sensitive electronic skin can precisely capture a slithery artificial fish by using finger gesture recognition.