RESEARCHERS at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a new technology that can make any tissue sample exceptionally flexible.

ELAST (Entangled Link-Augmented Stretchable Tissue-hydrogel) is a chemical process that makes tissue samples very thin, stretchy, compressible and borderline indestructible. With it, lab technicians can more quickly and easily conduct fluorescent labeling in cells, proteins, or other genetic materials within organs like the brain or lungs. That, in turn, could enable faster research discoveries.

Kwanghun Chung, an associate professor of chemical engineering, developed the new process while working on a complex project five years in the making: building the most comprehensive map to date of the human brain.

To realize that model, Chung needs to label and scan every fine cellular and molecular detail in even the thickest slabs of brain tissue, in order to preserve its three-dimensional structure. The lab must also be able to preserve these samples for years, as they go through various rounds of labeling.

“When people donate their brain, it is like they are donating a library,” Chung says in a statement. “Each one contains a library worth of information. You cannot access all the books in the library at the same time. We have to repeatedly be able to access the library without damaging it. Each of these brains is an extremely precious resource.”

Engineering ELAST meant settling on the ideal formulation for a gel-like chemical called polyacrylamide. The beauty industry actually uses this polymer as a stabilizer and binder in lotions and other cosmetics. In Chung’s new version, there’s a high concentration of acrylamide, which results in a tangled set of long polymer chains with links that slip and slide around.

That gives the gel structural integrity, but also loads of flexibility. So when the gel is applied, cells and molecules of the tissue in question are trapped inside the web of polymer chains. In turn, the sample can withstand stretching and squashing, without fear of tearing.(SD-Agencies)