#nanoneedles

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Needles in Eyes

Sticking needles in your eyes might not be as bad as it seems. Any loss or damage to the inner layer of the cornea – the clear surface of the eye – can be permanent and lead to progressive sight loss. Corneal transplantation is the only available solution, and is invasive and limited, so researchers have developed a spiky new approach to restoring lost or damaged cells. They created a sheet of nanoneedles (green in the human cornea sample pictured) that can embed within the inner layer of cornea cells (red and blue), nestling down to the perfect depth. These needles can then directly deliver small strands of genetic material that interfere with a particular gene involved in keeping growth in check. With that silenced, cell growth increased. The nanoneedles can be integrated in contact lenses for long term drug delivery, restoring sight without sore eyes.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Image from work by Eleonora Maurizi and colleagues

Dentistry Centre Lab, University of Parma, Parma, Italy and Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology, King's College London, London, UK

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Advanced Science, October 2022

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Antibacterial Material

Disease-causing bacteria are formidable foes at the best of times but are particularly menacing in cases of medical device-associated infections. The surfaces of implanted devices, such as catheters and heart valves, can become coated in dense impenetrable bacterial biofilms – the microbial equivalent of nuclear bunkers – that surround and protect the bugs from both antibiotics and the patient’s immune system. With the aim of developing devices that can resist biofilm formation, researchers are taking inspiration from flying insects. The wings of dragonflies, cicadas and other insects are naturally antibacterial, having nanostructures that can pierce and slice bacterial cells preventing them from getting a foothold. Pictured above is a manmade wing-inspired material – silicon nanoneedles – shown rupturing a Stapholococcus aureus bacterium. Researchers are continuing to develop such materials to maximise lethality to bacteria, safety to patients and feasibility for use in implants.

Written by Ruth Williams

Image from RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, AU

Review by Denver P. Linklater and colleagues

Image copyright held by the photographer

Review published in Nature Reviews Microbiology, August 2020

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