Spectrum News: UC develops new medical apps
Engineering professor Andrew Steckl is developing new applications for the fabrication process
University of Cincinnati engineering professor Andrew Steckl spoke to Spectrum News 1 about promising medical innovations he is developing using century-old technology.
Steckl, a professor of electrical engineering in UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science, is working on new treatments for brain tumors and cancer using a fabrication process called coaxial electrospinning. It combines two or more materials into a fine fiber for use in industry, textiles or even medicine.
Coaxial electrospinning creates a spiderweb-thin fiber. UC is using unique combinations of polymers to develop new medical treatments. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services
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.
Featured image at top: University of Cincinnati professor Andrew Steckl, center, talks with UC senior research associate Daewoo Han, left, and Turkish researcher Serdar Tort in Steckl's Nanoelectronics Laboratory. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services
University of Cincinnati professor Andrew Steckl is developing innovative medical applications using coaxial electrospinning in his Nanoelectronics Laboratory. Photo/Rod Hissong/Spectrum News 1
More news coverage of UC's research
- Science Daily: Electrospun fibers weave new medical innovations
- The Verdict: The 100-year-old manufacturing technique set to revolutionize medicine
- SciTechDaily: Not Spiderwebs: These Electrospun Fibers Weave New Medical Innovations
- MedGadget: Coaxial Electrospinning Creates Novel Contraceptive, Other Devices
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