Ali Tamayol and team develop smart bandage that could promote healing of chronic wounds

Ali Tamayol, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering, and researchers from Harvard and MIT have designed a smart bandage that could eventually heal chronic wounds or battlefield injuries and be controlled via smartphone.

The bandage consists of electrically conductive fibers coated in a gel that can be individually loaded with infection-fighting antibiotics, tissue-regenerating growth factors, painkillers or other medications.

A microcontroller no larger than a postage stamp, which could be triggered by a smartphone or other wireless device, sends small amounts of voltage through a chosen fiber. That voltage heats the fiber and its hydrogel, releasing whatever cargo it contains.