Self-driven and sustainable removal of oil spills in water using bio-inspired textiles

18-Dec-2023 - Researchers at the ITA, the University of Bonn and Heimbach GmbH have developed a new method for removing oil spills from water surfaces in an energy-saving, cost-effective way and without the use of toxic substances. The method is made possible by a technical textile that is integrated into a ...

Lifestyle-related diseases: clear parallels between humans and bears

Bioinspired approach could offer novel opportunities for the development of medical treatments and drugs for both humans and animals

10-Jul-2023 - Formerly bile-farmed bears show the same sort of lifestyle-related pathologies that are also responsible for accelerated, premature ageing in humans. This is the main finding of an international study led by researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. According to the study, ...

Lights on for Germ-Free Wound Dressings

Biomimetic hydrogel with photodynamic antimicrobial effect

21-Jan-2020 - Infections are a dreaded threat that can have fatal consequences after an operation, in the treatment of wounds, and during tissue engineering. Biomimetic hydrogels with “built-in” antimicrobial properties can significantly decrease this danger. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, scientists have ...

New treatment strategies for chronic kidney disease from the animal kingdom

22-Feb-2018 - The field of biomimetics offers an innovative approach to solving human problems by imitating strategies found in nature. Medical research could also benefit from biomimetics, as a group of international experts from various fields, including a wildlife veterinarian and wildlife ecologists from ...

Chemists create clusters of organelles by mimicking nature

03-Nov-2016 - Scientists from the University of Basel have succeeded in organizing spherical compartments into clusters mimicking the way natural organelles would create complex structures. They managed to connect the synthetic compartments by creating bridges made of DNA between them. This represents an ...

Natural mother of pearl structure, synthetic replication

22-Aug-2016 - Biomaterials play a crucial role in the development of future high-performance materials. A naturally occurring example of such biomaterial, the mollusk shell, guides chemical replication processes in laboratories. Due to its complex chemical construction, however, these processes are not easy to ...

Gloop from the deep sea

19-Jan-2016 - This animal has done everything right. It has been around for 300 million years, outlived the dinosaurs and survived the catastrophic meteorite impact, warm phases and glacial periods. Even today, it continues to populate the sea at depths where it eats carrion and hunts prey. The Atlantic ...