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Mussels and mucus team up for surgical glue that repels infections | Scientists have now created a new adhesive that combines the stickiness of mussel’s natural glue with the slimy, germ-repelling nature of mucus.
It’s hard to get glue to work underwater – unless you’re a mussel. Scientists have now created a new adhesive that combines the stickiness of mussel’s natural glue with the slimy, germ-repelling nature of mucus.
Engineers from MIT and Freie Universität Berlin have now found a way to make mussel-inspired adhesives even better with the help of a bodily substance: mucus. To strengthen their glue, mussels use two chemical groups, called catechols and thiols, which cross-link like the hooks and loops of Velcro. To investigate, the researchers combined natural mucin proteins and synthetic polymers based on mussel adhesives into solutions of different strengths.
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