With increased awareness about food sources and their environmental impacts, replacing animal-derived products in food and drugs is a significant research area. One common—but often overlooked—animal protein is gelatin, found everywhere from candy to plastic-free packaging.

In Physics of Fluids, researchers from the University of Ottawa present gum tragacanth as a plant-based alternative to gelatin for creating edible films.

“Gelatin has unique properties and its use is versatile,” said author Ezgi Pulatsu. “To fully replace gelatin, we must replicate its microstructure and understand its function in different applications.”

Serratia marcescens, a pathogen with an uncanny resemblance to blood, has had an outsized influence on modern science.

Neurological complications are an important concern in patients undergoing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Consensus guidelines inform the management of immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). However, these guidelines are based on the early clinical experience with CD19 targeting CAR T cells in B-cell malignancies. In contrast, there are so far no published best practice recommendations on the current management of other non-classical neurological complications, which frequently develop after CAR T-cell infusion and cause clinically significant neurotoxicity.

LA JOLLA—Human bodies defend themselves using a diverse population of immune cells that circulate from one organ to another, responding to everything from cuts to colds to cancer. But plants don’t have this luxury. Because plant cells are immobile, each individual cell is forced to manage its own immunity in addition to its many other responsibilities, like turning sunlight into energy or using that energy to grow. How these multitasking cells accomplish it all—detecting threats, communicating those threats, and responding effectively—has remained unclear.

Researchers from both Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and the University of Freiburg, Germany, have been collaborating on a project to help those who suffer from chronic wounds heal faster than ever before and therefore negate the possibility of amputation in severe cases.

Commonly a small wound does not lead to any serious complications; however, for those with diabetes, spinal injuries or poor blood circulation, a small wound means a greater risk of infection and chronic wounds – which in the long run can lead to much more serious consequences such as amputation.

Maria Asplund, Associate Professor of Bioelectronics at Chalmers University of Technology and head of research on the project explained that “Chronic wounds are a huge societal problem that we don’t hear a lot about. Our discovery of a method that may heal wounds up to three times faster can be a game changer for diabetic and elderly people, among others, who often suffer greatly from wounds that won’t heal.”