A recent article from Ryan Gilbert's research lab was promoted to the cover of the journal Advanced Biology. The title of the article is "Delivery of TGFβ3 from Magnetically Responsive Coaxial Fibers Reduces Spinal Cord Astrocyte Reactivity In Vitro" and the authors are Jessica L. Funnell, Jasper Fougere, Diana Zahn, Silvio Dutz, and Ryan J. Gilbert.
The article can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1002/adbi.202470101
Abstract:
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition that severely impacts patient quality of life, and there are no available treatments that restore lost function. Biomaterials can provide local, sustained release of therapeutics, but drug-releasing biomaterials do not address variability in injury severity. To tune delivery to a unique injury, Ryan J. Gilbert and co-workers developed a fibrous scaffold that can be stimulated with a magnetic field to alter the release rate of a growth factor. The authors found that sustained release of the growth factor resulted in a greater reduction of spinal cord astrocyte reactivity compared to bolus delivery in vitro. The astrocytes treated with the drug-releasing scaffold supported sensory neuron growth in coculture, shown in the flourescence image. Article number 2300531 provides a foundation for developing biomaterials capable of tunable growth factor release in response to externally applied magnetic fields for SCI treatment.