Bioadhesive

Even as animals and plants face widespread extinction from human-driven causes like climate change, the natural world continues to inspire scientific discovery in unexpected ways."Nature has spent hundreds of millions of years optimising elegant solutions to extremely complicated problems," said Alo...

Getting a scan usually means a visit to a doctor and some giant equipment. What if that gear was wearable?

A research team lrevives surface adhesion in proteins by adding cysteine-rich protein of mussels. Adding cysteine-rich protein to conventional underwater adhesives will increase their adhesion.

Land snails and their mucus were used in ancient times by Hippocrates and Pliny to treat pain associated with burns, abscesses and other wounds. Inspired by this ancient therapy, Prof. Wu Mingyi and his team at the Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences identified a natural biological adhesive from snail secretions, evaluated its in vitro adhesion properties and studied its in vivo…

Researchers have discovered that they can control the stickiness of adhesive bandages using ultrasound waves and bubbles. This breakthrough could lead to new advances in medical adhesives, especially in cases where adhesives are difficult to apply such as on wet skin.

Bathroom accessories mounted on tile walls often fall off if not mounted correctly. This is because the moisture in the bathroom weakens the surface adhesion. Conversely, mussels boast amazing adhesion as they stick firmly to rocks even underwater. Although studies are being conducted to utilize these mussel adhesive proteins (MAPs) as an adhesive, its vulnerability to oxidation has made it difficult to fully…

Scientists have long been intrigued by the remarkable properties of spider silk, which is stronger than steel yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. Now, Fuzhong Zhang, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has made a significant breakthrough in the fabrication of synthetic spider silk, paving the way for a new…

Entropic repulsion caused by interfacial orientational fluctuations of cholesterol layers restricts protein adsorption and bacterial adhesion, providing a conceptually new physicochemical perspective on biointerfaces that may guide future material design in regulation of adhesion.

Living organisms use powerful physical principles to control interactions at their surfaces. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Leipzig University and TU Dresden have now discovered why cholesterol-containing surfaces can exhibit greatly reduced attachment of proteins and bacteria.

In humans, mucus keeps tissues moist, and it also filters the air we breathe, trapping allergens and microorganisms before they can make us sick. Nature, on the other hand, has found more creative and fun purposes for the slimy stuff. Some are brilliant—like the snot bubbles that keep Australian animals alive during heatwaves—while others solve

Researchers have used a novel method to replicate mussel-adhesive proteins, creating a stronger glue than the material they set out to mimic.

Those who have tried to pry a mussel from anything from wood to rock know how stubborn the underwater mollusks are—and their gluey secret has long captivated scientists. For years, researchers have attempted to replicate the extraordinary adhesive and its properties in the lab, targeting some of the eight proteins that mussels secrete and use to coat an organ called a foot that mussels use to attach to surfaces.

An inhalable powder that acts as an "invisible mask" for the lungs could potentially help end the COVID-19 pandemic.

A team of researchers, including members from the University of Connecticut, has developed a nanoparticle-based treatment that targets multiple culprits in glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer.

A new stick-on ultrasound patch can record the activity of hearts, lungs and other organs for 48 hours at a time