Biomaterials

NASA inches closer to printing artificial organs in space

Technology Review: In America, at least 17 people a day die waiting for an organ transplant. But instead of waiting for a donor to die, what if we could someday grow our own organs? Last week, six years after NASA announced…

Bio-inspired scaffolds could aid injured skeletal muscle

Futurity: To promote the regeneration of injured skeletal muscle, bioengineers are making and testing tunable electrospun scaffolds completely derived from decellularized skeletal muscle. A paper in Science Advances shows how natural extracellular matrix can mimic native skeletal muscle and direct…

Icy microneedles deliver cells across skin

C&EN: A new microneedle patch offers a cool way to deliver therapeutic cells across skin. Microneedles made of ice with suspended cells frozen in the tips penetrate skin before melting instantly and releasing the cells. Microneedles have been successfully used…

First monkey–human embryos reignite debate over hybrid animals

Nature: Scientists have successfully grown monkey embryos containing human cells for the first time — the latest milestone in a rapidly advancing field that has drawn ethical questions. In the work, published on 15 April in Cell1, the team injected…