Ion gels, composed of macromolecular networks filled by ionic liquids (ILs), are promising candidate soft solid electrolytes for use in wearable/flexible electronic devices. In this context, the introduction of a self-healing function would significantly improve the long-term durability of ion gels subject to mechanical loading. Nevertheless, compared to hydrogels and organogels, the self-healing of ion gels has barely investigated been because of there being insufficient understanding of the interactions between polymers and ILs. Herein, a new class of supramolecular micellar ion gel composed of a diblock copolymer and a hydrophobic IL, which exhibits self-healing at room temperature, is presented. The diblock copolymer has an IL-phobic block and a hydrogen-bonding block with hydrogen-bond-accepting and donating units. By combining the IL and the diblock copolymer, micellar ion gels are prepared in which the IL phobic blocks form a jammed micelle core, whereas coronal chains interact with each other via multiple hydrogen bonds. These hydrogen bonds between the coronal chains in the IL endow the ion gel with a high level of mechanical strength as well as rapid self-healing at room temperature without the need for any external stimuli such as light or elevated temperatures.

Whole-organ/body three-dimensional (3D) staining and imaging have been enduring challenges in histology. By dissecting the complex physicochemical environment of the staining system, we developed a highly optimized 3D staining imaging pipeline based on CUBIC. Based on our precise characterization of biological tissues as an electrolyte gel, we experimentally evaluated broad 3D staining conditions by using an artificial tissue-mimicking material. The combination of optimized conditions allows a bottom-up design of a superior 3D staining protocol that can uniformly label whole adult mouse brains, an adult marmoset brain hemisphere, an ~1 cm3 tissue block of a postmortem adult human cerebellum, and an entire infant marmoset body with dozens of antibodies and cell-impermeant nuclear stains. The whole-organ 3D images collected by light-sheet microscopy are used for computational analyses and whole-organ comparison analysis between species. This pipeline, named CUBIC-HistoVIsion, thus offers advanced opportunities for organ- and organism-scale histological analysis of multicellular systems.

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Hydrogels are considered key tools for the design of biomaterials, such as wound dressings, drug reservoirs, and temporary scaffolds for cells. Despite their potential, conventional hydrogels have limited applicability under wet physiological conditions because they suffer from the uncontrollable temporal change in shape: swelling takes place immediately after the installation. Swollen hydrogels easily fail under mechanical stress. The morphological change may cause not only the slippage from the installation site but also local nerve compression. The design of hydrogels that can retain their original shape and mechanical properties in an aqueous environment is, therefore, of great importance. On the one hand, the controlled degradation of used hydrogels has to be realized in some biomedical applications. This Progress Report provides a brief overview of the recent progress in the development of hydrogels for biomedical applications. Practical approaches to control the swelling properties of hydrogels are discussed. The designs of hydrogels with controlled degradation properties as well as the theoretical models to predict the degradation behavior are also introduced. Moreover, current challenges and limitation toward biomedical applications are discussed, and future directions are offered.

Geometric constraint in pregel solution enables construction of a highly ordered three-dimensional polymer network.