When Mohsen Akbari, a biomedical engineer at the University of Victoria, talked about the futuristic microfibers created in his laboratory to solve medical mysteries, it sounded far from nature.

But in fact, nature is both the inspiration and blueprint for the work of the Micro Engineering Innovation Laboratory (LiME). Researchers in multidisciplinary laboratories study what nature has already done so well, and then recreate them in the laboratory to improve the way they treat diseases and manage drugs.

Akbari's team studied how spiders secrete a variety of proteins, which together form a wonderful weaving fiber. Since then, "smart microfibers" have appeared, which are used to weave into gauze-like fabrics and use "smart bandages" to treat burns and other wounds. These fibers have been carefully designed to detect the earliest signs of infection and provide medical treatment without removing the bandages-this process can be monitored via smartphone signals.

LiME scientists study the characteristics and interactions of body systems and then reverse engineer them in the laboratory. They have now created microfibers that mimic skeletal muscle, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, so emerging drug therapies can be tested and more accurate results can be obtained.

Microfibers can also be woven into "smart nets" designed to manage the delivery of drugs to diseased organs. LiME's work on glioblastoma is an example.

There is only one drug that can treat aggressive brain cancer, but it is very toxic to other organs, and only 5% of patients get help. Akbari said that using this grid, surgeons can remove tumors, use a 3D printer to print the grid on site, and use it to line up tumor cavities. The drug is then placed directly in the mesh in the brain and released slowly, avoiding damage to other organs and allowing higher doses.

"If we can see 10% of people get help because of this, that would be a huge improvement," Akbari said.

Improving drug therapy is the main focus of Akbari's work. But Akbari said that the development of new drug therapies is still a process with a high failure rate. Among the various reasons for this situation, there are two drug testing methods that no one has been able to solve so far: cultivating new compounds in petri dishes; and testing them on laboratory animals such as mice.

Akbari said neither of these are good substitutes for the detailed system and highly specific DNA of the human body. "The body is quite complicated."

But through LiME's work, emerging drugs can be tested on microfibers that mimic human tissues. Drug developers can research effective therapies faster and understand how they deal with fibers specifically designed to replicate the body part being treated. Smart microcapsules made of new materials will soon deliver drug payloads directly to diseased organs, avoiding toxic side effects on other body systems.

Could a brand new organ made from these microfibers and materials come one day? Akbari said that this is still a dream.

"No one has figured out how to vascularize organs and replicate all these blood vessels," he said. "Nature still wins. This is why we seek answers from nature."

Only 10% of new drug therapies enter the market, and less than one-third of the drugs have achieved the desired effect. This is largely due to how the body dispenses medicines and the challenges of administration in order to focus treatment on diseased parts of the body without affecting healthy organs. Hair loss in people undergoing chemotherapy is an example of unexpected side effects caused by drugs.

The microfibers designed in LiME draw inspiration from nature and combine them using classic textile techniques, including weaving, weaving and embroidery.

A "smart bandage" can be woven from various microfibers with different characteristics, some of which can deliver drugs, and others can trigger the release of drugs by generating heat through conduction. Other microfibers are designed to mimic the internal grooves of bone marrow, muscle, or spine, creating a more realistic "human" platform for testing new drug therapies.

Most of LiME's innovative bioengineering research is led by Akbari's graduate students, including Bahram Mirani's research on multifunctional microfibers and 3D printed grids; Hossein Dibiri and Lucas Karperien using smart microfibers; and Brent Godau for tissue printing.

Akbari's research is funded by the government and the private sector, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Rheolution Inc., 4M BioTech, RepliCel, and the BC Cancer Foundation.

Keywords: administration, genetics, health, research, technology

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