Gecko feet inspire medical breakthrough

13 November 2016 - 02:00 By Shanthini Naidoo

A glue that can be used to seal microscopic fissures in human tissue has been created by Jeffrey Karp, a bioengineer at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts - inspired by a gecko's Spiderman-like climbing ability. Karp has been heralded as a "bioinspirationalist", someone who looks to nature for solutions to scientific problems. He started off by studying the tiny, hair-like pillars that allow geckos to stick to surfaces.The Guardian reports that Karp wanted to create a substance to replace sutures and staples in surgery, which can damage sensitive tissue.In March this year four hospitals in Paris held trials in which the surgical glue, made from sugar and polymer, was tested on 36 patients. It was used on blood vessels and was found to work well to stop bleeding, successfully sealing the fissures. No adverse effects were found in the patients in the three months after surgery.Some of Karp's new projects include making surgical staples inspired by porcupine quills, and another kind of surgical glue inspired by the sticky secretions of marine worms, which is strong enough to bind moving tissue inside major organs, including the heart...

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