On a perfectly good day, you are writing in your notebook. You just turned the page delicately, and dang, there you have a paper cut. Not a single drop of blood comes out, but that teensy cut keeps you in misery all day. In major or even a minor surgery, those cuts are big, and the wounds last for weeks while hindering even the simplest of your daily tasks. Scientists have developed a surgical glue that will get rid of the stitches by stapling the surgery wounds.
A group of researchers from the Harvard Medical School and the University of Sydney has developed the glue called MeTro. The team was led by Nasim Annabi, an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering. It uses a human protein that has been modified to respond to UV light and dry out in less than a minute.
As surgical techniques continue to get better, the size of the incisions made for surgeries is getting smaller. Despite being smaller, the wounds of these surgeries still need to be stitched, leading to a long and painful recovery. This problem is solved by MeTro that sticks human skin together while saving the effort of sewing it. The glue can also be used on organs as a more sanitary seal. The team behind the breakthrough says that since the glue is a protein, it also helps in tissue regeneration and thus speeds up the healing process.
Sounds too good to be true, but that is exactly what MeTro is. The research group continues to perform further tests on the MeTro glue. The team will soon move on to the clinical trials.
For all we know, all the surgical procedures in the future may end up in sticking the flesh back together instead of stitching it. Good for us!
