Engineered magnetic plant biobots for nerve agent removal

Tissue-engineered Peripheral Nerve

Nerve injuries occur by a variety of mechanisms, including traumatic wounds, thermal or chemical damage, myelin or axonal degeneration, and acute compression. These injuries typically result in the loss of motor function, sensory function, or both. Functional recovery is regained upon complete axonal regeneration, which includes remyelination and reinnervation (i.e., synapse formation) of the a...

Engineered neural tissue for peripheral nerve repair.

A new combination of tissue engineering techniques provides a simple and effective method for building aligned cellular biomaterials. Self-alignment of Schwann cells within a tethered type-1 collagen matrix, followed by removal of interstitial fluid produces a stable tissue-like biomaterial that recreates the aligned cellular and extracellular matrix architecture associated with nerve grafts. S...

Engineered plant minichromosomes.

Minichromosomes offer an enormous potential for plant breeding and biotechnology, because they may simultaneously transfer and stably express multiple genes. Segregating independently of their host chromosomes, they provide a platform for accelerating plant breeding. Minichromosomes can be established from cloned components in vivo (bottom up) or via engineering of natural chromosomes (top down...

Pretreatment for Nerve Agent Exposure

Biocompatible magnetic core-shell nanocomposites for engineered magnetic tissues.

The inclusion of magnetic nanoparticles into biopolymer matrixes enables the preparation of magnetic field-responsive engineered tissues. Here we describe a synthetic route to prepare biocompatible core-shell nanostructures consisting of a polymeric core and a magnetic shell, which are used for this purpose. We show that using a core-shell architecture is doubly advantageous. First, gravitation...