Seoul National University of Science & Technology

Researchers develop a new origami-inspired folding strategy for hydrogel pores, enabling unprecedented control SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Hydrogel-based devices—such as hydrogel pores—are widely used in miniaturized applications ranging from drug delivery to flexible electronics and robotics. Yet conventional designs with simple geometries often suffer from slow, unpredictable actuation and offer limited control. In a recent study, researchers introduced an origami-inspired "facet-driven folding" strategy using polygonal hydrogel pores to deliver highly controlled, programmable actuation, opening new possibilities for selective drug delivery and information encryption. Continue Reading The proposed strategy utilizes facet-and-hinge architectures to guide the swelling of facets in polygonal pores along predefined directs, enabling precise control over pore closure and restoration. Hydrogels are soft, water-rich polymeric materials that can swell or shrink in response to environmental stimuli. This ability to change shape makes them valuable in miniaturized devices for flexible electronics, microrobotics, intelligent surfaces, and biomedical applications such as drug delivery. For example, hydrogel pores can be engineered to trap and release tiny drug particles on demand. However, most current hydrogel pores use circular designs, which limit control over shape change and lead to unpredictable, slow actuation. They often close unevenly and recover poorly, reducing their precision and reliability. To address these challenges, a research team led by Professor Hyunsik Yoon from the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology in Korea, introduced a new origami-inspired folding strategy for reversible actuation of hydrogel pores. Prof. Yoon explains, "Unlike conventional circular pores, which result in randomized folding, our design involves a facet-driven folding strategy, integrating origami-inspired hinge-and-facet architectures into polygonal hydrogel pores, to enable programmable and predictable actuation." The team also included Dr. Ji Hoon Kim and Professor Wo Bo Lee from Seoul National University. Their study was published in in Volume 8, Issue 7 of the journal Matter on June 30, 2025. The proposed strategy uses polygonal pores with fixed boundaries and predetermined hinges for controlled pore closure and restoration. Upon swelling, the facets of the polygonal pores bulge inward toward the center of the pore along specific directions guided by the predetermined hinges at the vertices, ultimately closing the pore. When the hydrogel shrinks, the facets are restored along the same paths, achieving predictable restoration. Additionally, the extent of pore closure can be controlled by changing the polygonal shape and fine-tuning the geometric properties. Importantly, the polygonal pores retain 90% of their original shape after repeated swelling-shrinking cycles, demonstrating excellent reliability. The researchers applied this strategy to achieve pH-triggered release of microparticles, where the pores release microparticles in a staged manner, based on the pH of the environment. "This pH responsive mechanism is highly useful for drug delivery applications, where drug release is staged and targeted to specific regions marked by pH fluctuations," says Prof. Lee. The researchers also explored information encryption using these pores by creating a mixed matrix of square and circular hydrogel pores, containing fluorescent particles. The difference in closing behavior between the two shapes allowed them to hide or reveal patterns, enabling one-time-use encryption. "Our strategy can be integrated into drug delivery systems for achieving high spatial and temporal precision, improving therapeutic outcomes while minimizing side effects," highlights Dr. Kim. "Moreover, this design opens new opportunities for advanced lab-on-a-chip systems, next-generation soft robotic components, and diagnostic assays." We hope this innovative facet-driven folding strategy is adopted into more hydrogel devices, enhancing both their controllability and reliability. Reference Title of original paper: Facet-driven folding for precise control of hydrogel pore actuation Journal: Matter DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2025.102248 About the institute Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SEOULTECH) Website: Media Contact: Eunhee Lim 82-2 - 970 - 9166 [email protected] SOURCE Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SEOULTECH) WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

The bioink can be precisely applied directly onto damaged tissue with a digital biopen, offering a convenient solution for healing wounds SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tissue engineering utilizes 3D printing and bioink to grow human cells on scaffolds, creating replacements for damaged tissues like skin, cartilage, and even organs. A team of researchers led by Professor Insup Noh from Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea, has developed a bioink using nanocellulose derived from Kombucha SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) as the scaffold material. The biomaterial offers a sustainable alternative to conventional options, and it can be loaded onto a hand-held 'Biowork' biopen, also developed by the same team. The digital biopen allows the precise application of bioink to damaged defected areas, such as irregular cartilage and large skin wounds, paving the way for more personalized and effective in vivo tissue repair, eliminating the need for in vitro tissue engineering processes. Continue Reading The new tissue engineering method uses a bioink derived from Kombucha SCOBY nanocellulose, reinforced with chitosan and kaolin, and a handheld biopen. The digitally controlled biopen enables precise and personalized wound repair or 3D bioprinting of complex structures. This paper was made available online on 28 October 2024 and subsequently published in Volume 282, Part 3, of the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules on 1 December 2024. "Our prefabricated nanocellulose hydrogel network from symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast has the potential to be used as a platform bioink for in vivo tissue engineering by loading all types of biomolecules and drugs and direct bioprinting," says Prof. Noh. Kombucha SCOBY is a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast used to ferment green tea. The microorganisms produce cellulose, which is biodegradable and compatible with cells. However, the nanocellulose derived from Kombucha SCOBY has an entangled structure, which requires modification for 3D bioprinting. This involves adjusting its rheological properties (how it flows) and mechanical properties to improve extrusion and maintain structural integrity after printing. The researchers accomplished this by partially hydrolyzing nanocellulose with acetic acid, breaking glucose bonds and disentangling the network for its bioprintablity. However, this treatment lacked control of its properties, leading to a reduction of its structural strength. The team reinforced the nanocellulose with chitosan (positively charged) and kaolin (negatively charged) nanoparticles. These chitosan and kaolin particles interact with cellulose through electrostatic forces, forming a stable hydrogel suitable for 3D bioprinting. The bioink was prepared by mixing the ingredients, including live cells, within a biopen. Digitally controlled, two counter-rotating screws within the biopen uniformly mixed the ingredients, creating a homogeneous bioink that could be directly applied through a needle onto damaged tissue. When attached to a 3D bioprinter, the biopen enabled the creation of multilayer, self-standing structures with high resolution, such as bifurcated tubes and pyramids exceeding 1 cm in height. The biopen was also used for direct in situ layer-by-layer printing of irregularly shaped defects. Using it, the researchers accurately filled 3D-printed cranium and femoral head molds with designed defects. The bioink and digital biopen combination offers a cost-effective solution for treating large areas and irregularly shaped wounds without any in vitro tissue regeneration process, particularly in emergency and first-aid situations. "This technology allows for a quick and easy one-step process where the drug and hydrogel are mixed and immediately applied on-site to injured areas of different shapes," says Prof. Noh. Reference Title of original paper: Simultaneous processing of both handheld biomixing and biowriting of kombucha cultured pre-crosslinked nanocellulose bioink for regeneration of irregular and multi-layered tissue defects Journal: International Journal of Biological Macromolecules DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.136966 About the institute Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SEOULTECH) Website: Contact: Eunhee Lim 82-2-970-9166 [email protected] SOURCE Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SEOULTECH) WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

The strategy simultaneously extracts lipids and metabolites from zebrafish embryos to study perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS)-induced neurotoxicity SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The term "omics" refers to the study of entirety of molecular mechanisms happening inside an organism. With the advent of omics technologies like transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics, our understanding of molecular pathways of toxic environmental pollutants has deepened. But most environmental toxicology studies are still dependent on a single-omics analyses, leading to gaps in our understanding of integrated toxicity pathways of pollutants. Researchers from all over the world have been trying to build reliable biomolecule analyses by designing multi-omics studies from a single biological sample. Although such advances have been reported from various model systems like mammalian cells, Caenorhabditis elegans, etc., toxicology studies on zebrafish are still based on a single-omics analyses using individually prepared biological samples. However, selection of appropriate extraction solvents and pooling size for accurate omics analyses is still a challenge in zebrafish toxicology studies. Continue Reading Using a newly proposed extraction strategy, researchers simultaneously analyze metabolomics and lipidomics of neurotoxicity in zebrafish embryos, revealing many lipids and metabolites involved in the toxicity pathways. These findings advance our understanding of environmental toxicity using multi-omics analyses. To address this gap, a research team led by Professor Ki-Tae Kim has now proposed a novel approach for simultaneous extraction of metabolites and lipids for multi-omics analyses from a single sample using zebrafish embryos. Their study was published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, made available online on 28 November, 2024. For this, the researchers used a methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE)-based extraction strategy using a single biological sample from zebrafish embryos for simultaneous metabolomics and lipidomics analyses. Explaining further, Prof. Kim says, "To increase the applicability of our findings to environmental toxicology, we elucidated the biomolecular mechanisms underlying PFOS-induced neurobehavioral changes and evaluated the analytical performance of the MTBE-based strategy by comparing it with previous findings of PFOS-induced metabolomic dysregulation." In their study, Prof. Kim and his team determined the optimal embryo pooling size for the application of MTBE-based extraction. The team suggest the usage of 30 larvae as the optimal pooling size for simultaneous analysis of metabolomics and lipidomics owing to the least inter-sample variation. Their novel extraction strategy also revealed many lipids and metabolites compared to the conventionally used extraction solvents. Application of the MTBE-based strategy helped record the changes in metabolites and lipids linked to energy metabolism in PFOS-exposed zebrafish larvae. "The disruption of metabolites and lipids revealed the biomolecular mechanism underlying the alteration of larval behavior by affecting biological processes like energy metabolism including disrupted amino acids and fatty acids metabolism", says Prof. Kim. The analyses of biomolecular dysregulation revealed sphingolipids as a reliable biomarker of PFOS-induced neurotoxicity. Usage of a single sample for multi-omics study can be expanded to a variety of biomolecules, leading to the management of toxicity at the biomolecular level. The proposed approach can help in developing a safer and healthier environment by facilitating research on exposure to environmental pollutants. PFOS is one of the most prevalent environmental pollutants of aquatic ecosystems, with higher concentrations being detected in water, human blood and even human cerebrospinal fluid. Reliable analysis of biomolecules in a single sample is indispensable for multi- and integrative omics, aiding in understanding molecular dysregulations by such toxic chemicals. Highlighting the potential of this strategy for expediting such analysis, Prof. Kim says, "The developed method will trigger mechanism-based classification studies of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and contribute to the advancement of multi-omics analysis technologies in environmental toxicology." Reference Title of original paper: Applying newly suggested simultaneous analysis of metabolomics and lipidomics into perfluorooctanesulfonate-derived neurotoxicity mechanism in zebrafish embryos Journal: Journal of Hazardous Materials DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136712 About the institute Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SEOULTECH) Website: Media Contact: Eunhee Lim 82-2 - 970 - 9166 [email protected] SOURCE Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SEOULTECH) WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED