Sometimes science doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel — it just needs to find clever shortcuts. While complex bioengineering and sophisticated nanotechnology are pushing medicine forward, researchers recently found an unexpected boost for tissue healing in an everyday grocery store item: yogurt.
In a new study published in Matter, researcher from Columbia University and the University of Padova in Italy formulated an injectable gel for tissue regeneration infused with particles derived from yogurt.
These tiny particles, called extracellular vesicles (EVs), naturally come from cells and are packed with proteins and genetic material. They’re essential for sophisticated communication between cells, something synthetic materials often struggle to replicate.
“This project started as a basic question about how to build EV-based hydrogels. Yogurt EVs gave us a practical tool for that, but they turned out to be more than a model,” said Santiago Correa, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia in a ...
