Overview

• The work from Professor Oren Scherman’s group at Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry was published on September 8, 2025, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
• A polymer network with reversible, pH-sensitive crosslinks softens as acidity rises in inflamed joints, triggering the release of encapsulated cargo.
• In vitro experiments using a fluorescent dye surrogate showed substantially greater release at arthritic pH than at healthy pH.
• Researchers propose a cartilage-like implant to deliver anti-inflammatory drugs locally during flare-ups, aiming to improve efficacy and reduce systemic side effects.
• The team will evaluate performance and safety in living systems and says the chemistry can be tuned for different drugs, release rates, and durations.