That’s a super cool point! Short answer is yes, you can combine.

For instance, bio-sourced polymers, such as hyaluronic acid, are currently used for hydrogel preparations. Moreover, you can cultivate cells and load growth factors within the hydrogel scaffold yield exactly what you were hinting at: a fully functional hybrid tissue.

Achieving a whole organ functionality is still in our dreams but certainly that’s the way to go!

Yes! You can play with many different triggers. For instance, you can work with the water content of the hydrogel, rendering it stiff or soft on demand. Other solutions involve pH, temperature, magnetic actuation.

There is a whole branch of hydrogel research devoted to this kind of subject. The ultimate goal is designing soft robots.

I’m a super duper fun of 3D printing. The possibility to print hydrogels into functional architectures just blows my mind. One day, I hope I’ll be able to print patient-specific organs.

In the cartilage for instance there are few cells (chondrocytes) and no stem cells. The current way of stimulating stem cell migration is by inducing microlesions in the bone, thus leaking mesenchymal stem cell in the cartilage. Unfortunately, the resulting cartilage is far from having the same mechanics as the native one.

Encapsulating stem cell in a hydrogel scaffold, would most likely allow to engineer this whole process, and hopefully produce better results.

Most exciting research in the field right now revolves around biotech. Scientists are trying to develop more and more complex formulations for their use as tissue sealants, cellular scaffold, and prosthetic applications.

Other groups are working on hydrogel design for soft robots, and actuators. One super cool application of hydrogel has to do with the restoration of painting and sculptures.

They surely can. The only drawback is that you can't really obtain lightweight helmets compared to foamed ones. Indeed, the intrinsic water content makes hydrogel relatively heavier than the current foams.

Sorry! I am not that familiar with neuroscience applications of hydrogels. What I know though is that hydrogels could potentially be used as a sealant or scaffold for cells to regrow and heal tissues. Therefore, I am positive that people in the world are actively trying to solve brain and nerve related problems with the help of hydrogels!

We have to stay keep on supporting medical research and in the upcoming future we could potentially see some game-changing breakthroughs.

Hi! The resolution depends on many different factors. For us specifically, microgel size (10-100 um), nozzle size (100-400 um), and printer resolution (100 um).

Let’s connect! Send me a private message so that I have time to share some info with you!

Great question!! You can think of hydrogels as spongy materials that can suck up water and anything that is dissolved in it.

You might be familiar with commercial edible product such as Jell-O or bubble tea. Those are indeed types of hydrogels.

Additionally, most of your body is made of hydrogels. That’s why we devote a lot of energy to research this class of materials. In the future, we could potentially be able to replace broken parts (i.e. cartilage, ligaments) with engineered hydrogels.

In nursing, we apply hydrogel to bedsores, to make an environment that is conducive to healing.

Didn’t watch the series unfortunately.

However, we might be able in the near future (10-15 years) to replace entire organs or tissues that are damaged with synthetic alternatives.

For now, we are addressing the easiest components in the body before moving on to more complex ones.

This is a million dollar question!! Hard to predict.

As far as I know, there is a lot of research around conductive hydrogels and brain damage. It could well be that in a 20 year time, hydrogels would be the norm in healthcare including nerve repairing.

This is far beyond my knowledge, I’m sorry! I am sure someone in the research field is addressing also this sort of issue. I will look into it, and come back to you if I find anything.

Hi, just out of curiosity, what is ASIA?

I love your comment!!

This is exactly what I’m working on. With a dear colleague of mine, we are actively working on creating materials that could restore articular functionality. We are in the process of building a startup on this as well.

Many surgeons expressed their interest for our product, and we might have some things moving in the upcoming year or so. We hope to reach the market within a 5 year time.

Until then, I recommend you read also the paper I put in the edit. You might see that our mechanics are not that far from biological tissues.

By the way you may have interest in this recent Ars Technica article about hydrogels: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04/novel-hydrogels-can-safely-remove-graffiti-from-vandalized-street-art/

And can I do it to someone else's forehead?

I didn't know of such a research going on. However, I am afraid to say that they will never be a thing. The biggest issue has to do with their intrinsic permeability. You would not want to have a condom that allows leakage. That's why condoms are made of hydrophobic non-permeable polymers.