Spectrum News: UC develops new medical apps

In the clean room of his Nanoelectronics Laboratory, Steckl creates spiderweb-thin fibers with a core of one material surrounded by a sheath of another. Through unique combinations, he can take advantage of the properties of one material with the powerful benefits of another.

“It’s a bit of complicated physics,” Steckl told Spectrum 1 News. “When you combine the forces of an electric field with the viscous forces of a fluid, you create a very fine jet. It’s stable for a bit and then it becomes unstable and begins to spin around – hence, electrospinning.”

Electrospinning was invented in 1902 for use in textiles. But Steckl has been applying it to medical applications for new drug-delivery systems and novel treatments for a brain tumor called glioblastoma.

Steckl said electrospun pharmaceuticals could release fast-acting painkillers through the outer fiber layer while the inner layer would provide a longer-lasting or slow-release therapeutic drug.