These more durable gels could find applications in drug
delivery and tissue engineering.
Gels that can be injected into the body, carrying drugs or
cells that regenerate damaged tissue, hold promise for treating many types of
disease, including cancer. However, these injectable gels don’t always maintain
their solid structure once inside the body.
MIT chemical engineers have now designed an injectable gel
that responds to the body’s high temperature by forming a reinforcing network
that makes the gel much more durable, allowing it to function over a longer
period of time.