I will tell you why mussels are extremely special!!
So right now, I am on a holiday in Montenegro and yesterday I found what I find something very special. A single mussel had sticky threads to maybe more than 10 small rocks. The mussel sticks to the rock with glue. And that is what is so special about it.
For years, scientists have been trying to create glue that stays sticky when wet. And nobody has ever succeeded to create one. Until scientist let themselves be inspired by the greatest inventor of all time: nature. Over time, nature has created an enormous amount of diversity in life. And so, scientists found that the mussel, a creature we all know and find quite normal, is extremely special. Mussels make glue that stays sticky when wet.
The mussel that I found in Montenegro.
In November 2016, scientist created a glue, based on mussel-glue that doesn’t collapse when its soaked. Dr. Bruce Lee, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Michigan Technological University, is using a protein produced by mussels to create a reversible synthetic glue that not only can bond securely underwater, but also may be turned on and off with electricity. It can be applied to a variety of surfaces and with different electrical current the glue can be sticky or collapse in an instant.
The secret to the unique glue of mussels is an amino acid called DOPA. Lee and his team mixed DOPA with materials like rubber and polyester, searching for the perfect combination. Eventually, they managed to create a material that can attach to a variety of surfaces such as metal, plastic and even flesh and bone. The versatility is the number one quality of this material, because Lee can change the chemistry to make it as rigid or flexible as needed. Lee believes the material can have multiple applications in underwater devices on ships for example, but also medical applications are within his vision. The glue can be used for new types of bandages, and in the future to heal wounds without having to use stitches, and maybe even attach prosthetic limbs.
But the research in using mussel-based glue continued. Recently, in May this year, Korean researchers developed a glue that can be applied on wounds that can minimize scars. Normally, when wounds heal, a specific type of collagen is created to heal the wound, but this collagen doesn’t have the same cross-weave pattern as skin tissue. When this new type of glue is applied to the wound, actual skin tissue is formed. These results come from experiments on rats, which have a slightly different type of skin, so the researchers are going to have to continue to experiment on more human like skin-types for human applications. But the results are so far very promising.
Mussels are creatures that everybody thinks of ordinary shell-fish but in fact they are more special than you think 😊.
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Sources of the researches:
https://phys.org/news/2016-11-mussel-power-underwater.html
https://www.sciencealert.com/mussel-inspired-glue-could-be-the-next-best-thing-for-healing-wounds-without-scars