Fiber-Based Fluidic Devices: Butterflies Could Hold Key To Probes That Repair Genes

New discoveries about how butterflies feed could help engineers develop tiny probes that siphon liquid out of single cells for a wide range of medical tests and treatments. The research has brought together Clemson's materials scientists and biologists who have been focusing on the proboscis, the mouthpart that many insects used for feeding. For materials scientists, the goal is to develop what they call "fiber-based fluidic devices," among them probes that could eventually allow doctors to pluck a single defective gene out of a cell and replace it with a good one, said Konstantin Kornev, a Clemson materials physics professor. "If someone were programmed to have an illness, it would be eliminated," he said. read more

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