Indian scientists make breakthrough discovery of material that repairs itself

Scientists have developed piezoelectric molecular crystals that repair their own mechanical damage without the need for any external intervention, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) said on Saturday.

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/indian-scientists-make-breakthrough-discovery-of-material-that-repairs-itself-1012430.html

Scientists have developed piezoelectric molecular crystals that repair their own mechanical damage without the need for any external intervention, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) said on Saturday.

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/indian-scientists-make-breakthrough-discovery-of-material-that-repairs-itself-1012430.html

Scientists have developed piezoelectric molecular crystals that repair their own mechanical damage without the need for any external intervention, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) said on Saturday.

Piezoelectric crystals are a class of materials that generate electricity when it undergoes a mechanical impact.

Devices that are used daily often break down due to mechanical damage, forcing users either to repair or replace them. This decreases the life of the equipment and increases maintenance costs. In many cases, like in a spacecraft, human intervention for restoration is not possible.

"Keeping such necessities in mind, researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, in collaboration with IIT Kharagpur, have developed piezoelectric molecular crystals that repair themselves from mechanical damages without need for any external intervention," the DST said in a statement.

Called bipyrazole organic crystals, the piezoelectric molecules developed by the scientists recombine following mechanical fracture without any external intervention, autonomously self-healing in milliseconds with crystallographic precision, it said.

In these molecular solids, due to the unique property of generating electrical charges on mechanical impact, the broken pieces acquire electrical charges at the crack junction, leading to attraction by damaged parts and precise autonomous repair.

This research, supported by the DST through its Swarnajayanti Fellowship to CM Reddy and Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) grants, has been published in the journal 'Science' recently.

This methodology was initially developed by the IISER Kolkata team led by professor C M Reddy, a recipient of Swarnajayanti fellowship (2015), Professor Nirmalya Ghosh of IISER Kolkata, a laureate of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) G.G. Stokes Award in Optical polarisation 2021, used a custom-designed state-of-the-art polarisation microscopic system to probe and quantify the perfection of the piezoelectric organic crystals, the the statement said.

These materials with perfect internal arrangement of molecules or ions are called 'crystals' which are abundant in nature.

In the IIT Kharagpur's team, Professors Bhanu Bhusan Khatua and Sumanta Karan studied the performance of the new materials for fabricating mechanical energy harvesting devices, it added.

The material may find application in high-end micro-chips, high precision mechanical sensors, actuators, micro-robotics. Further research into such materials may eventually lead to the development of smart gadgets that self-repair cracks or scratches.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

Research suggests the stem cells in our teeth can be energized to fill in chips, cracks, and cavities

The stem cells in our teeth can be energized to fill in chips, cracks, and cavities, researchers say, and the findings could one day possibly make dental cement obsolete. 

The work has been conducted just in mice so far, but the research, published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports, highlights a way to motivate stem cells to repair tooth defects at a scale they normally can’t, with a drug that already has some safety testing behind it. 

It also demonstrates the potential of a type of stem cell therapy in which the cells are stimulated in place, rather than taken out, manipulated, and put back in. 

“We’re mobilizing stem cells in the body and it works,” said Paul Sharpe, a researcher at King’s College London and an author of the new paper. “If it works for teeth, chances are it could work for other organs.” 

Experts not involved with the work noted that while it is in early stages, the simplicity of the approach should ease its path into the next phases of research that show whether it might produce the same results in people. 

“These important steps close down the translational gap and bring this discovery a step closer to future clinical applications,” Dr. Vanessa Chrepa, a researcher at the University of Washington, wrote in an email. “This work will hopefully set the stage for clinical studies in the near future.” 

When teeth lose some of their dentin — the bony tissue beneath the enamel that makes up the bulk of the tooth — the stem cells tucked deep inside mount a recovery effort and manufacture new dentin (which is also spelled dentine). The problem, Sharpe said, is that the natural repair mechanism can only regrow small amounts of dentin and can’t make up all that is lost when a tooth suffers a serious injury, contracts a major infection, or takes on the sharp end of a dentist’s drill. 

Because of the limits of the teeth’s ability to repair themselves, dentists have to fill or seal teeth to prevent further infection and degradation. But dental cement also prevents the tooth from ever returning to its natural, pearly white self. 

Sharpe and his team have been trying to understand how the natural repair mechanism works in hopes of converting that understanding into a way to super-power it. As part of their research, they discovered that a group of molecules called glycogen synthase kinase inhibitors (or GSK-3 inhibitors) boosts the stem cells’ ability to stimulate production of dentin beyond what normally occurs. 

For the new study, the researchers drilled tiny holes into mice’s molars to expose the tooth’s pulp, where the stem cells live. They then inserted collagen sponges that had been soaked in one of three types of GSK-3 inhibitors and covered the tooth. 

After six weeks, the researchers removed the teeth and found that the sponges had dissolved and the lost dentin had mostly been regenerated. 

“They’ve harnessed the signaling pathway that promotes natural repair,” said Megan Pugach, a researcher at the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Mass., and at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, who was not involved with the research. 

Sharpe and his team are now conducting similar studies in rats to make sure the approach can generate enough dentin to fill in larger holes in larger teeth before trying to study the method in people. But two aspects of the approach could help ease its path into clinical trials.

First, the researchers used collagen sponges that are already commercially available and are shown to be safe. Secondly, one of the GSK-3 inhibitors they used, called Tideglusib, has been tested in people as a possible therapy for Alzheimer’s disease, meaning it is already shown to be safe in higher doses than what the researchers would incorporate into the sponge. 

“In terms of getting that into the clinic, we can make a huge leap,” Sharpe said. 

Sharpe and other researchers around the world have been studying if and how teeth stem cells could be used to regenerate a whole tooth, possibly one day replacing dentures or implants. But teeth are complex organs, with both hard and soft tissue, so that goal remains further away. 

Because this approach is just focused on dentin, “it’s a bit more low-hanging fruit,” Sharpe said. But this study also adds to the possibility of stem cell therapies, which are much hyped, but for the most part have yet to be developed into validated treatment.

“This is a very clear, simple demonstration that with basic knowledge of what happens normally in the body, you can design something that can enhance that,” he said. 

 this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations

https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes 

https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement