Open AccessElasticizing tissues for reversible shape transformation and accelerated molecular labeling
Author(s) -
Taeyun Ku,
Webster Guan,
Nicholas B. Evans,
Chang Ho Sohn,
Alexandre Albanese,
Joon Goon Kim,
Matthew P. Frosch,
Kwanghun Chung
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nature methods
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 19.469
H-Index - 318
eISSN - 1548-7105
pISSN - 1548-7091
DOI - 10.1038/s41592-020-0823-y
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , transformation (genetics) , nanotechnology , materials science , scalability , biophysics , computer science , chemistry , biology , biochemistry , polymer chemistry , gene , database
We developed entangled link-augmented stretchable tissue-hydrogel (ELAST), a technology that transforms tissues into elastic hydrogels to enhance macromolecular accessibility and mechanical stability simultaneously. ELASTicized tissues are highly stretchable and compressible, which enables reversible shape transformation and faster delivery of probes into intact tissue specimens via mechanical thinning. This universal platform may facilitate rapid and scalable molecular phenotyping of large-scale biological systems, such as human organs.