Aligned peptide ‘noodles’ could enable lab-grown biological tissues

Chemists and bioengineers from Rice University and the University of Houston have developed a novel fabrication process to create aligned nanofiber hydrogels that mimic the aligned structure of muscle and nerve tissues. "Our findings demonstrate that our method can produce aligned peptide nanofibers that effectively guide cell growth in a desired direction," said Adam Farsheed, a scientist who led this research effort. "This is a crucial step toward creating functional biological tissues for regenerative medicine applications."