Synthetic tissue can repair hearts, muscles, and vocal cords

People recovering from heart damage often face a long and tricky journey. Healing is challenging because of the constant movement tissues must withstand as the heart beats. The same is true for vocal cords. Until now there was no injectable material strong enough for the job.

Combining knowledge of chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering, scientists develop a biomaterial tough enough to repair the heart, muscles, vocal cords, and wound representing a major advance in regenerative medicine.

The hydrogel is a type of biomaterial that provides room for cells to live and grow. Once injected into the body, the biomaterial forms a stable, porous structure allowing live cells to grow or pass through to repair the injured organs.

The scientists tested the durability of their hydrogel in a machine they developed to simulate the extreme biomechanics of human vocal cords.

They were incredibly excited to see it worked perfectly in their test.

The innovation also opens new avenues for other applications like drug delivery, tissue engineering, and the creation of model tissues for drug screening.