TUESDAY, June 4, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Mussels may one day lend their "muscle" to the operating room.
New information about how the aquatic creatures bind tightly to rocks, ship hulls and other surfaces could lead to the development of surgical adhesives that could be used to close incisions in place of tissue-damaging sutures, say Purdue University researchers.
The findings were presented today at the Great Lakes Regional meeting of the American Chemical Society in Minneapolis.
A mussels' adhesives are made up of soluble proteins that cross-link to form a hardened matrix. Preliminary results from the Purdue team's research indicates that metals such as iron are vital to this matrix. This is the first time that's been shown, and it indicates that humans may be able to replicate what appears normally in nature.
The Purdue team hopes to build on and improve the mussels' natural design.
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The discovery of mussels' ability to create such a strong bond with other substances is just one of thousands --if not millions -- of examples of our borrowing from nature to solve problems.
Take a visit to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to see many more examples of science imitating nature.
