Biomedical engineering articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Endo-lysosomal escape is a highly inefficient process. Here the authors present a lipid-based nanoscale molecular machine that achieves efficient cytosolic transport of biologics by destabilizing endo-lysosomal compartments through nanomechanical action upon light irradiation.

    • Yu Zhao
    • , Zhongfeng Ye
    •  & Qiaobing Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of liposome-based drug delivery systems has been hindered by the systemic toxicity and limited duration of effect due to insufficient drug loading and leakage of payload. Here the authors address these issues by designing aromatized liposomes that feature increased drug loading and slowed release compared to conventional liposomes.

    • Yang Li
    • , Tianjiao Ji
    •  & Daniel S. Kohane

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is an emerging interest in the use of mRNA therapeutics in cancer treatment, but their precise in vivo delivery remains a challenge. Here the authors develop IFN-γ mRNA-loaded small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) with CD64 overexpressed on their surface and demonstrate its efficacy in glioblastoma mouse models resistant to immunotherapy.

    • Shiyan Dong
    • , Xuan Liu
    •  & Wen Jiang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Architected materials can have enhanced properties compared to bulk but are difficult to design. Here the authors propose a machine-learning-based pipeline to design architected materials with predetermined elastic modulus and enhanced yield strength and test it in additive manufacturing.

    • Bo Peng
    • , Ye Wei
    •  & Peng Wen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Skeletal disorders are commonly diagnosed by X-ray imaging, but the radiation limits its use. Here, the authors show that intravital NIR-II bone imaging is effective in diagnosis of a series of common bone diseases non-invasively in mice.

    • Chao Mi
    • , Xun Zhang
    •  & Dayong Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Brain injuries can result in significant damage to the cerebral cortex, and restoring the cellular architecture of the tissue remains challenging. Here, the authors use a droplet printing technique to fabricate a simplified human cerebral cortical column and demonstrate its functionality and potential for future personalized therapy approaches.

    • Yongcheng Jin
    • , Ellina Mikhailova
    •  & Hagan Bayley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Therapeutic options for myocardial infarction therapy remain limited. Here the authors report the application of an optimized liquid crystal substrate in the mass production and effective preconditioning of cardiospheres, which could generate cardiospheres with improved cell bioactivity and resistance to oxidative stress for myocardial infarction therapy.

    • Yingwei Wang
    • , Qi Li
    •  & Zheng Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The intricate and delicate anatomy of the brain poses challenges to achieving efficient and precise medical treatments. Here, the authors introduce ultrasound-activated microrobots that can autonomously aggregate and propel upstream inside the complex vasculature of a living mouse brain.

    • Alexia Del Campo Fonseca
    • , Chaim Glück
    •  & Daniel Ahmed

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Limited delivery of therapeutic cells to diseased tissue hampers the effective application of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Here, authors modify the cell surface with polyvalent antibodies using DNA-templated assembly, and show that polyvalent interactions can be used to improve the targeting efficiency of MSCs.

    • Tenghui Ye
    • , Xi Liu
    •  & Peng Shi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While glycolysis inhibition impairs cancer cell tumourigenic capacities, it also affects immune cells anti-tumour activity. Here, the authors show that rescuing glycolytic inhibition of dendritic cells improves the efficacy of combining immunotherapy with glycolysis inhibition.

    • Sahil Inamdar
    • , Abhirami P. Suresh
    •  & Abhinav P. Acharya

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Adopting standardized and reliable methodologies to accurately measure particle removal efficiency when developing fibrous materials for controlling airborne contamination is crucial. Here, the authors recommend best practices for experimental assessments and reporting to ensure a reliable evaluation of new airborne particle filtration media and technologies.

    • Paolo Tronville
    • , Vincenzo Gentile
    •  & Jesus Marval

  • Article
    | Open Access

    pH alterations are a hallmark of many pathologies including cancer and kidney disease. Here the authors describe [1,5- 13 C2]Z-OMPD as a probe for hyperpolarized 13C-MRI with good pH sensitivity and hyperpolarization properties which combined with tailored MRI protocols allow sub-minute imaging of pH, renal perfusion and filtration simultaneously.

    • Martin Grashei
    • , Pascal Wodtke
    •  & Franz Schilling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Continuous monitoring of arterial blood pressure is limited by bulky connecting systems and poor interfacial contact. Here, Li et al. report a wearable thin, soft, miniaturized system that integrates sensing, active pressure adaptation, and signal processing for improved performance and accuracy.

    • Jian Li
    • , Huiling Jia
    •  & Xinge Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the mechanical properties of materials is critical in many fields, from soft hydrogels to biological tissues, yet current measurement methods lack the spatial and time resolution to characterize samples with complex structures. Here, the authors show non-invasive elastography technique offering advancements in resolution, sensitivity, and measurement frequencies.

    • Xu Feng
    • , Guo-Yang Li
    •  & Seok-Hyun Yun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems have shown potential for treating malignant tumors, however, limited tumor penetration of nanosystems remains a hurdle for effective tumor therapy. Here, the authors report a biomimetic bubble nanomachine with tumor-cell-membrane-derived nanovesicle secretion triggered by near-infrared laser irradiation for enhanced tumor penetration.

    • Junbin Gao
    • , Hanfeng Qin
    •  & Yingfeng Tu

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    The design of polymers for regenerative medicine could be accelerated with the help of machine learning. Here the authors note that machine learning has been applied successfully in other areas of polymer chemistry, while highlighting that data limitations must be overcome to enable widespread adoption within polymeric biomaterials.

    • Samantha M. McDonald
    • , Emily K. Augustine
    •  & Matthew L. Becker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Immunosuppressive tumour immune microenvironments (TME) limit the success of immune checkpoint blockade (ICD). Here, the authors develop a hyaluronic acid-bilirubin nanoparticle (HABN) capable of inducing immunogenic cell death in tumour cells and altering the TME, resulting in increased sensitivity to ICB (anti-PD-L1) in preclinical models of colorectal cancer and breast cancer.

    • Yonghyun Lee
    • , Jongyoon Shinn
    •  & James J. Moon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft grippers can emulate human hands, but it remains challenging to achieve multiple capability in manipulating various objects in one design. Hong et al. utilize a kirigami gripper with controllable and programmable trajectories to manipulate objects spanning from ultra-soft to ultra-strong with high precision.

    • Yaoye Hong
    • , Yao Zhao
    •  & Jie Yin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Temporary bioelectronics can complement classical therapies in non-chronic treatments. Here, the authors describe the minimally invasive implantation of bioresorbable electrodes in the brain that form in situ from water-dispersed nanoparticles and show no tissue damage after bioresorption.

    • Martin Hjort
    • , Abdelrazek H. Mousa
    •  & Roger Olsson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Implanted bioelectronic devices have proven useful for health sensing and therapy, while the interconnection of distributed implants remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate direct implant-to-implant wireless networking at the scale of the human body using metamaterial textiles.

    • Xi Tian
    • , Qihang Zeng
    •  & John S. Ho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In-ear visual and auditory brain-computer interfaces typically have issues with poor interfacial adhesion or user irritation. Here, Wang et al. presents an in-ear hollow bioelectronic device that adaptively conforms to the ear canal, under electrothermal actuation, for electroencephalogram sensing.

    • Zhouheng Wang
    • , Nanlin Shi
    •  & Xue Feng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The success of surgical kidney stone removal is limited by the ability to efficiently retrieve stone fragments, resulting in incomplete stone clearance and subsequent morbidity. Here, the authors show the efficacy and biocompatibility of a magnetic hydrogel that selectively coats human kidney stone fragments in vitro allowing their total extraction using a magnetic wire.

    • T. Jessie Ge
    • , Daniel Massana Roquero
    •  & Joseph C. Liao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Untethered soft robots developed to date display limited functionalities beyond locomotion and cargo delivery. Here, the authors present a pangolin-inspired robotic design which enables heating > 70 °C at distances > 5 cm without compromising their compliance, for biomedical applications.

    • Ren Hao Soon
    • , Zhen Yin
    •  & Metin Sitti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This report describes a 3D microelectrode array integrated on a thin-film flexible cable using traditional thin-film processing techniques and direct laser writing of 3D structures at micron resolution via two-photon lithography for neural recording.

    • Morgan A. Brown
    • , Kara M. Zappitelli
    •  & Timothy J. Gardner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The possibility of banking cryopreserved organs could make transplantation medicine much more accessible. Here, the authors show that vitrification and nanowarming—cooling organs to an ice-free state followed by rapid rewarming using nanoparticles and magnetic fields—enables organ cryopreservation, long-term banking, and recovery of full function in a rat kidney transplant model.

    • Zonghu Han
    • , Joseph Sushil Rao
    •  & Erik B. Finger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active targeting and cytosolic delivery of therapeutic payloads are challenging in small extracellular vesicle-based drug delivery systems. Here, the authors engineer fusogen and targeting moiety co-functionalized cell-derived nanovesicles, which can selectively bind to target cells and efficiently fulfill cytosolic delivery through membrane fusion.

    • Lixue Wang
    • , Guosheng Wang
    •  & Yuan Wan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In vivo manipulation of cells has applications in cell-based therapy, tissue engineering and targeted drug delivery. Here the authors demonstrate in vivo programmable acoustic manipulation of genetically engineered bacteria using holographic acoustic tweezers.

    • Ye Yang
    • , Yaozhang Yang
    •  & Hairong Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Illuminating internal organs and tissues with high controllability and adaptability remains challenging. Here the authors present a flexible, biodegradable photonic device called iCarP for large area, high intensity, wide spectrum, deeply penetrating, continuous or pulsatile illumination.

    • Kaicheng Deng
    • , Yao Tang
    •  & Yang Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Various anti-fibrotic drugs have been applied to urethral stricture by irrigation or submucosal injection, but their clinical feasibility and effectiveness are limited. Here, the authors design a protein-based nanofilm-controlled drug delivery system with anti-biofilm properties that can be assembled on a catheter.

    • Juanhua Tian
    • , Delai Fu
    •  & Peng Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Virtual reality technologies need olfactory systems to improve human perception, but their bulky formats limit their practicality. Here, Liu et. al. report flexible and miniaturized odor generators with tunable odor concentration in close user proximity for immersive virtual reality applications.

    • Yiming Liu
    • , Chun Ki Yiu
    •  & Xinge Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Genetic modules are sensitive to changes in their context and to environmental perturbations. Here, the authors develop a genetic optimizer based on common synthetic biology parts to ensure optimal and robust cellular performance in diverse contexts.

    • Andras Gyorgy
    • , Amor Menezes
    •  & Murat Arcak

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanical scratching and oxidative stress can aggravate atopic dermatitis symptoms, while treatment targeting scratching is often overlooked. Here, the authors find that enhanced phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase is associated with scratch-exacerbated AD, then develop a hydrogel dressing that integrates oxidative stress modulation with FAK inhibition to synergistically treat AD.

    • Yuanbo Jia
    • , Jiahui Hu
    •  & Feng Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Platelet-neutrophil aggregates are a hallmark of thromboinflamation. Here, the authors use cargo-free particles to block platelet-neutrophil aggregates’ vascular wall adhesion, which could become an effective thromboinflammation therapy, regardless of disease cause.

    • Alison L. Banka
    • , M. Valentina Guevara
    •  & Omolola Eniola-Adefeso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Autologous skin flap transplantation is a common method to repair complex soft tissue defects. Here the authors develop a hydrogel patch that releases carbon monoxide and nitric oxide gases on demand, to afford a timely blood supply for skin flap transplantation during surgery, just improving the incidence of distal necrosis of the flap and reducing long-term functional loss.

    • Xiaoduo Tang
    • , Jingyan Ren
    •  & Bai Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Image reconstruction algorithms raise critical challenges in massive data processing for medical diagnosis. Here, the authors propose a solution to significantly accelerate medical image reconstruction on memristor arrays, showing 79× faster speed and 153× higher energy efficiency than state-of-the-art graphics processing unit.

    • Han Zhao
    • , Zhengwu Liu
    •  & Huaqiang Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stretchable and degradable elastomers are crucial for developing transient and bioresorbable electronics. Herein, Han et al. tuned the diverse properties of biodegradable PLCL elastomers and demonstrated their application in soft, perceptive robotic grippers and transient, suture-free cardiac jackets.

    • Won Bae Han
    • , Gwan-Jin Ko
    •  & Suk-Won Hwang

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