It's not right, it's not even wrong

Abstract

Standard advice for new university graduates is to embrace failure. If you don't fail, you aren't pushing the boundaries. The title of this work, originally presented at a symposium at the 2024 World Biomaterials Congress in Daegu, South Korea. “Learning from Successful Failures in Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine”, is a quote from Wolfgang Pauli, upon hearing a scientific presentation that disappointed him because it didn't even point to a better answer – it wasn't even wrong.

Often our scientific contributions are incomplete or go only so far before they run up against unforeseen obstacles. We tried to immobilize heparin to a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel to prepare a nonthrombogenic material but we didn't appreciate the consequences of non-adherent platelet contacts on material compatibility. We tried to microencapsulate mammalian cells and particularly pancreatic isles in acrylate-based hydrogels but we couldn't actually isolate cells from the immune system: antigens were released from the cells and that triggered a host response which killed the cells. However, that failure, lead us to a different polyacrylate that caused blood vessels to grow without growth factors. Now we use that material as an injectable gel to vascularize the subcutaneous space to permit pancreatic islet engraftment and restoration of normoglycemia – a good example of a successful failure.