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Credit: Stemgent
Jeffrey Karp, 32
Gecko-inspired surgical tape
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Bioengineer Jeffrey Karp may finally have found a noninvasive alternative to the sutures and staples that have long been a mainstay of surgery and emergency medicine. Using a biodegradable elastic polymer, Karp and his colleagues have created a surgical tape that is covered with nanoscale pillars akin to the gripping structures on geckos' feet. Coated with a sugar-based glue, the tape securely closes a surgical incision and then degrades completely over time.
Karp can adapt the polymer to suit different applications: a patch for the heart, for example, would need to be more stretchable than one for the liver, while one to close cuts on the skin would need a different pattern of pillars. The polymer can also release drugs to help tissue heal. More than two dozen companies are interested in licensing the tape, which has shown promise in early animal tests. If all goes well, gecko tape could enter clinical trials within five years. --Katherine Bourzac
2008 TR35 Winners
Nicholas Fang
Superlenses for watching cells
Julia Greer
Revealing how materials behave at the nanoscale
Hossam Haick
Sniffing out cancer
Jeffrey Karp
Gecko-inspired surgical tape
Kostya Novoselov
Two-dimensional transistors
Aimée Rose
Ultrasensitive detectors to sniff out explosives