Clingy barnacles might be something of a nuisance for seafarers, but these stubborn shellfish and their relatives could hold the key to a new breed of sticky materials. Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created waterproof adhesives based on the proteins that give these creatures such qualities, a development that could one day be used anywhere from ship repairs to medical applications.
MIT researchers engineered bacteria to create two types of foot proteins and mix them with curli fibres – bacterial proteins with the ability to gather together and create large meshes. The team then purified the proteins from the bacteria and incubated them, resulting in a dense mesh and a material capable of binding to both dry and wet surfaces.
Their vision even involves plans to create a “living glue”, a film of bacteria that detects damage and automatically produces the adhesive to repair it.
Image credit: Yan Liang/MIT
