New research from UCLA Health suggests that certain inhalers used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are not only less harmful to the environment but can also lead to slightly better patient outcomes. Inhalers are essential therapies for COPD and other lung conditions, but many commonly used devices rely on propellants that are potent greenhouse gases.

Creating a drug that might help treat or cure a health condition in humans is a long, complex process. After developing a candidate drug that shows potential—a process that, in and of itself, can take decades—scientists often spend years testing the safety of new medications in cells, animals and then in humans.

A multidisciplinary team have built hydrogels built entirely from synthetic peptides so their properties can be precisely tailored through chemical design. By harnessing the power of collagen-inspired peptides and light-triggered chemistry, a University of Ottawa research team has engineered a customizable material with the potential to be a gamechanger for soft tissue repair, whether it’s closing a surgical incision or sealing a traumatic wound.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of medicine’s most powerful diagnostic tools. But certain tissues deep inside the body—including brain regions and delicate structures of the eye and orbit that are of particular relevance for ophthalmology—are difficult to image clearly. The problem is not the scanner itself, but the hardware that sends and receives radio signals.