Using biomimicry to create better surgical adhesives. Pretty cool research.
Unlike Gorilla Glue and Super Glue, which become useless when wet, Wilker's formulas are based on the super-sticking power of mussels. And they're some of the strongest glues ever made.
Inspiration
Wilker drew inspiration from mollusks that cling to rocks in stormy seas. The secret to their adhesion is the cross-linking of special proteins, which he tweaked for even greater effectiveness. "In biomimicry, you don't usually beat out nature," Wilker says, "but we made some stuff that's crazy strong."
Application
Wilker thinks his glues could eliminate the need for surgical screws, plates, sutures, or staples—fixtures he says belong in carpentry or a medieval torture chamber, not modern medicine. Mussel-inspired glues could mend arteries, seal wounds, and serve in airplane and car manufacture too.
Impact
Today, about 99 percent of adhesives are made from petroleum or emit formaldehyde (or both). Wilker's glues provide a more sustainable, nontoxic replacement. "I don't know of anything else out there with this kind of potential," he says, "but I'm biased."
http://www.popsci.com/glue-with-more-mussel
From Wilker's home page:
"The underwater adhesion and high bonding strengths of marine biological materials bring to mind many applications ranging from wet-setting biomedical adhesives to new materials with tailored moduli. Current materials engineering efforts rely on our abilities to alter the polymer compositions and carry out the syntheses on large scales. As we incorporate more advanced functionalities into the polymers we are tailoring the materials for specific uses. Perhaps most in demand are new adhesive materials for biomedical procedures and devices. At the moment there are no adhesives available that are simultaneously wet setting, strong bonding, and non-toxic. Marine biology may have already solved this problem, hence our exploration of these materials"
From Wilker's home page:
"The underwater adhesion and high bonding strengths of marine biological materials bring to mind many applications ranging from wet-setting biomedical adhesives to new materials with tailored moduli. Current materials engineering efforts rely on our abilities to alter the polymer compositions and carry out the syntheses on large scales. As we incorporate more advanced functionalities into the polymers we are tailoring the materials for specific uses. Perhaps most in demand are new adhesive materials for biomedical procedures and devices. At the moment there are no adhesives available that are simultaneously wet setting, strong bonding, and non-toxic. Marine biology may have already solved this problem, hence our exploration of these materials"
https://www.chem.purdue.edu/people/directory/faculty/details/69
Also, Here's another glue that's elastic, biodegradable, nontoxic, and cure when you shine a light on it.
http://time.com/4037531/maria-pereira/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter
Also, Here's another glue that's elastic, biodegradable, nontoxic, and cure when you shine a light on it.
http://time.com/4037531/maria-pereira/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter
"...Pereira’s goal was to develop a glue that could stick in the body’s harshest environment: the heart, which pumps what she describes as “a hurricane of blood” 60 times a minute. An adhesive that could attach under such wet and dynamic conditions must be elastic enough to expand and contract with each beat of the heart, and be hydrophobic (to repel blood away from the surface), biodegradable and nontoxic..."
Here's her product:
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