Gooey greatness

A new type of glue developed by researchers from MIT and Germany combines sticky polymers inspired by the mussel with the germ-­fighting properties of another natural material: mucus.

To stick to a rock or a ship, mussels secrete a fluid full of proteins connected by chemical cross-links. As it happens, similar cross-linking features are found in mucin—a large protein that, besides water, is the primary component of mucus. George Degen, a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and a coauthor of a paper on the work, wondered whether mussel-inspired polymers could link with chemical groups in mucin.

To test this idea, he combined solutions of natural mucin proteins with synthetic mussel-­inspired polymers and observed how the resulting mixture solidified and stuck to surfaces over time.

“It’s like a two-part epoxy. You combine two liquids together, and chemistry starts to occur so that the liquid solidifies while the substance is simultaneously gluing itself to the surface,” Degen says. 

The resulting gel strongly adheres even to wet surfaces while preventing the buildup of bacteria. The researchers envision that it could be injected or sprayed as a liquid, which would soon turn into a sticky gel. The material might coat medical implants, for example, to help prevent infection. The approach could also be adapted to incorporate other natural materials such as keratin, which might be used in sustainable packaging materials.