Chemists have developed a nanomaterial they can trigger to shape-shift — from flat sheets to tubes and back to sheets again — in a controllable fashion. The Journal of the American Chemical Society published a description of the nanomaterial, which was developed at Emory University and holds the potential for a range of biomedical applications, from controlled-release drug delivery to tissue engineering.
The research is funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Biochemists have developed a synthetic collagen nanomaterial they can trigger to shape-shift. Image credit: Nevit Dilmen/Wikimedia Commons
The nanomaterial, which in sheet form is 10,000