Materials
Right and below right: UCL’s Centre for Nature Inspired Engineering researches the structures of natural systems, or discrete parts, to inspire synthetic applications, and apply them to various challenges, including in health and well-being.
human kidneys (the ‘hairy’ glycocalyx structure of kidneys has informed the chemical industry and latterly antimicrobial resistant work) and insect wings (by looking at physical nanostructures). As Coppens says: “These kinds of jumps are easier to make in an interdisciplinary centre.”
To the stars 40%
The percentage of the global market for bio-inspired and biomimetic medical products that North America is already worth thanks to its growing geriatric population.
Precedence Research 108
What might this mean for medical materials production? Coppens suggests that with complex systems in nature often finding ways to thrive in their environment, taking this understanding to the production process can result in more scalable, efficient, sustainable solutions. “Sustainability, circularity, better loops, improved supply chains,” he says, “it’s in our ecosystems, coral reefs, forests; it doesn’t mean we should just copy it directly but the solutions have evolved in front of us.” At the same time, Coppens points to how wasteful medical materials production can be. “Some of the ways these materials are created, like masks for Covid-19 are one use, but nature can often be creative about [solving] that waste problem.” This, as Coppens describes, results in research in a dazzling range of directions. Via a partnership with the European Space Agency, for instance, UCL has worked to keep water on space flights bacteria-free, partly inspired by studying how capillaries work. Elsewhere, one of Coppens’ researchers is mapping immune responses in the body to underpin a better understanding of cancer immunotherapy, informed by how complex ecosystems in nature deal with multiple inputs. “It’s taking the principles of looking at how ecosystems in nature work,” Coppens summarises. “And trying to better understand a tumour microenvironment; it’s more holistic, it looks at the environment.”
Back in Catalonia, ICN2 is making its own industry partnerships. “We want to have an impact on society,” Suárez-Garcia says, adding that his research, with an applicative focus, is interested in solving the problems medical companies present. Coppens, for his part, is certain this can happen, especially when connections between governments and research hubs, as well as private enterprise, are constantly improving. No wonder Coppens now believes that bio-inspiration, though a scientific stalwart for centuries, is finally coming into its own. “Now is the moment,” he says, “that ideas I had in the past, inspired by nature, can be built on due to access to new materials and computational design – though, of course, we have to do this responsibly.” Whatever the future holds, in short, Frank Herbert would surely be proud. ●
Medical Device Developments /
www.nsmedicaldevices.com
UCL
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