18-year-old Kentucky student creates smart gel for drug delivery

Vallabh Ramesh's work looks at how next generation materials could be used in drug delivery, tissue engineering and other areas of biomedical technology in the future. Science and technology has never failed to surprise humans. Think, what if you could print a material into virtually any shape, respond to temperature, and one day help deliver medicine inside the human body? Sounds impossible? Well, it is possible! For 18-year-old Vallabh Ramesh, that question became the catalyst for an ambitious science project. According to Society for Science, Ramesh, a duPont Manual High School student, developed a smart polymer gel that can be 3D-printed with relatively inexpensive equipment and that undergoes a change at body temperature. His work looks at how next generation materials could be used in drug delivery, tissue engineering and other areas of biomedical technology in the future. Scroll down to read the details.A smart gel with a trigger of temperatureSmart materials are designed to respond to changes in their environment. Depending on their composition, they can respond to stimuli like temperature, light, pressure or electrical signals. Ramesh’s materials science project was on a t...