FASTER, PLEASE: Engineering team develops multifunctional tendon-mimetic hydrogels. “Repairing or replacing injured tendons or similar load-bearing tissues represents one of the major challenges in clinical medicine. Natural tendons are water-rich tissues exhibiting outstanding mechanical strength and durability. Their mechanical properties originate from sophisticated microscale structures involving stiff collagen fibrils aligned in parallel and interlaced with soft water-retaining biopolymers. . . . A research team led by Dr. Lizhi Xu of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a new type of tendon-mimetic hydrogel with outstanding mechanical properties matching those of natural tendons combined with multifunctionalities for biomedical applications.”