You live your life watching Star Wars and reading comic books, but our unrealistic expectations on future technologies may have been tempered by how far Back to the Future II overshot a 2015 version of Hill Valley. There’s no way we will ever actually live the Blade Runner life, or have a military that looks like it was ripped out of the pages of Ender’s Game. Or could we? Whatever leads to hoverboards, especially ones that have enough power to work on water…
The science fiction we grew up reading and watching is increasingly getting closer to being real, and technology from the Mass Effect videogame is the latest fiction to become reality. Yep, Medi-Gel or Veti-Gel, as it’s called, has been developed by NYU student Joe Landolina. It’s not as flashy as it’s videogame counterpart, but it works wonders just like it, sealing wounds in an instant.
All of this is awesome, and it can and will probably save millions of lives and limbs in the future, but let’s focus on the now:
This stuff could’ve saved Gustaffson vs. Mousasi. Look at the video below.
WARNING: there’s a demonstration with meat and blood if you’re squeamish, but it’s not that bad in my opinion.
Besides the obvious question of “When,” the next question is if the Veti-Gel will have any future iteration where it could seal up cuts between rounds. Unfortunately, it sounds like we may be part cyborg by the time the gel evolves to that point. I discussed this briefly with Jon Gelber M.D. of FightMedicine.net:
With a background in Tissue Engineering myself, I am interested to see how the cells repopulate the scaffold/matrix. That takes time. In fact, that is a huge part of tissue engineering itself is to build a scaffold, populate it with cells, and then hope the cells make the right kind of tissue.
Can this change the way fighters recover from an injury in camp? I know this is asking a lot but perhaps in the future it could be used between rounds?
There is certainly promise here, especially with the holding pressure part. The tissue engineering part will require a lot of research. Whether it can be used in a fight would depend on its material properties. It has to be able to withstand a punch or elbow.
Could this rid the MMA world of lengthy medical suspensions for cuts?
That would depend on the tissue engineering part. The cells may populate the scaffold, but it takes time for them to produce new tissue. And at the microscopic level it would need to have the right geometry to withstand both shearing and compressive forces.
It’s good to know that if we tumble off our hoverboard in a few years and crack our heads we will be able to grab some gel and seal the wound right up. They only need to make a combo style gel/medi gel for head wounds and then it will be truly complete. Until the fusion of style and and wound-sealing, hopefully this stuff can get on the market and save a few fights.
Thanks to Synthsis for the find.
