During the early stages of life, organs do not just appear in their final form. They take shape through a process of controlled bending, twisting, and folding. These changes help cells organize into ...

Enter 4D materials, which are like 3D materials, but they change shape when they are exposed to specific environmental cues, such as light or water. These materials have been eyed by biomedical ...

Researchers at University of Galway have developed a way of bioprinting tissues that change shape as a result of cell-generated forces, in the same way that it happens in biological tissues during ...

Combining materials with different swelling ratios creates structures that transform into tubes when exposed to water. (Courtesy: Yu Bin Lee) Materials that controllably change shape over time – often ...

New cell-laden bioink, comprised of tightly-packed, flake-shaped microgels and living cells, the production of cell-rich 4D bioconstructs that can change shape under physiological conditions. Where ...

A recent article published in Small Science introduces fully bioderived, four-dimensional (4D) printable shape memory polymers (SMPs) with linear tunability and remotely controlled actuation ...

Three-dimensional printing, also known as additive manufacturing, takes a digital blueprint and turns it into a physical object using computer-aided design (CAD). A repeating 2D structure is built up, ...

Although 4D printing is considered very promising for various biomedical applications – such as tissue scaffolds, neural scaffolds, grafts and stents, cardiac patches and valves, even bionic ...