Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) and RIKEN Pioneering Research Institute (PRI) in Japan, together with collaborators from the University of Münster, Germany, have developed a new hydrogel that offers significant advantages over others currently on the market in the field of biomaterials.

Based on a single synthetic peptide called FQ(Pyr), the new hydrogel has a highly organized structure made of nanofibers containing tiny water channels. The molecules within each nanofiber all point in the same direction, creating electrical polarization along the fiber. This means that, in addition to being strong and flexible, the new gel could be used to transport ions, generate electrical signals when squeezed or have other advanced interactions with biological tissues.

The findings were published in Nature Communications.