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Blood Barrier
26 March 2017

Blood Barrier

When blood hangs around in one place for too long it’s liable to clot. Plasters, bandages, even torn strips of clothing are great for slowing down escaping blood, and speeding up clotting. Inside the body though, clots can be lethal – a risk that increases when blood cells attach to foreign objects like a medical implant or a catheter. Now scientists have created a superhaemophobic material that repels blood (left), as well as liquids like plasma (middle) and water (right). Zooming in this far (each droplet is about a quarter of the size of a glass marble) we see the liquids stubbornly refusing to soak into the surface below – instead they form round beads on top. Blood hates the chemical makeup of the surface, a specially-treated form of titanium, raising hopes that it might fend off sticky clots. Work is underway on new medical devices coated in this clever biocompatible material.

Written by John Ankers

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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