3D Printing of Strong and Room-Temperature Reprocessable Silicone Vitrimers.

Silicones find use in a myriad of applications from sealants and adhesives to cooking utensils and medical implants. However, state-of-the-art silicone parts fall short in terms of shape complexity and reprocessability. Advances in three-dimensional printing and the discovery of vitrimers have recently opened opportunities for shaping and recycling of silicone objects.

Breakthroughs and insights: A comprehensive review of yellow fever vaccine breakthrough infection across 8 decades.

The yellow fever vaccine 17D is one of the most successful live-attenuated vaccines ever developed, controlling mosquito-borne yellow fever virus and yellow fever disease worldwide. Introduced in 1937, 17D never underwent rigorous phase III clinical trials to evaluate safety or efficacy, and while protection in the field was quickly established, no prospective evaluation of vaccine efficacy has ever been conducted. One important measure of vaccine efficacy is breakthrough infection resulting from vaccine failure.

3D printed drug-eluting stents: Toward personalized therapy for airway stenosis.

Airway stents are life-saving medical devices used to treat malignant or benign central airway stenoses. Unfortunately, these devices, typically manufactured from silicone alone and/or nitinol, can result in serious complications, such as stent migration, bacterial colonization, and tissue granulation, eventually forcing stent removal. Customized airway stents exhibit reduced migration and they can be tailored to address other complications by releasing drugs, such as the antibiotic levofloxacin and the antifibrotic drug nintedanib.

In vitro investigation of the blood flow downstream of a 3D-printed aortic valve.

The hemodynamics in the aorta as well as the durability of aortic valve prostheses vary greatly between different types of devices. Although placement and sizing of surgical aortic valve prostheses are excellent, the valve geometry of common devices cannot be customized to fit the patient's anatomy perfectly. Similarly, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) devices are not customizable and may be orientated unfavorably during implantation.