A glue made from shellfish by MIT researchers that copies the way mussels and barnacles hold on underwater to rocks and ship hulls could lead to new ways to heal wounds and surgical incisions.
In creating the adhesive,
announced in this week's edition of the science journal Nature Nanotechnology, the MIT research team developed bacteria to produce a "hybrid" material that combines the sticky mussel proteins with biofilm bacterial protein to form even stronger underwater adhesives than those secreted by mussels,
according to information from MIT.
"The ultimate goal for us is to set up a platform where we can start building materials that combine multiple different functional domains together and to see if that gives us better materials performance," according to Timothy Lu, an associate professor of biological engineering and electrical engineering and computer science and the senior author of the paper.
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The study noted that scientists were just beginning to understand the complex structures that makes up chemicals that allows shellfish to attach themselves to other materials underwater.
"Many natural underwater adhesives harness hierarchically assembled amyloid nanostructures to achieve strong and robust interfacial adhesion under dynamic and turbulent environments," according to the study's abstract. "Despite recent advances, our understanding of the molecular design, self-assembly and structure–function relationships of these natural amyloid fibers remains limited."
MIT said the research team's engineered bacteria produced proteins consisting of curli fibers bonded to either mussel foot protein 3 or mussel foot protein 5. After purifying these proteins from the bacteria, the researchers let them incubate and form dense, fibrous meshes, which allow them to bond to both dry and wet surfaces.
"The result is a powerful wet adhesive with independently functioning adsorptive and cohesive moieties," said Herbert Waite, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California at Santa Barbara. "The work is very creative, rigorous, and thorough."
One of the big goals of the research team is to create what is called "living glues," where bacteria could anticipate damage to a surface and then repair it by secreting an adhesive, reported MIT.
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