Self-Growing Materials Inspired by Muscles

Innovation: Academia

Hokkaido University

2019

Image: Annika Treial / Unsplash / CC BY SA - Creative Commons Attribution + ShareAlike

Manage Tension

When a living system is under tension, it means there is a force pulling on it, like a person pulling on a rope tied to a horse. When applied to a living system, unless the system is completely rigid, the result is that it gets stretched. If stretching exceeds the strength of the living system’s material, it can damage it. Living systems manage tension using materials that are flexible and stretchable enough to survive most tension that occurs in their environment. The ocean’s intertidal zone offers a good example. The waves and incoming and outgoing tides put tension on soft-bodied organisms. Mussels resist tension with flexible threads that hold them onto rocks; in contrast, large algae have stretchy fronds.

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Sense Temperature Cues From the Environment

Some living systems use their ability to perceive temperature to find prey or avoid predators, or as a way to gain information about their environment, such as whether they are near a warm or cold place. Temperature gradients can be subtle and modulate as they travel through water, air, or solids. Living organisms must therefore have a variety of thermal sensors appropriate to a given medium (liquid, gas, solid). Some even have a way to “visualize” a signal’s source. For example, the rattlesnake has heat sensors with thousands of nerve endings located in pit-shaped holes on each side of its face. The sensitivity of the pits overlaps, giving the snake a bifocal image of the heat’s source.

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Learn

Living systems obtain information from their environment and use it to find mates and resources, and to escape threats. Some reactions to gathered information are instinctual or innate behaviors, not based on previous experiences. But other reactions are based on previous experiences, which means that, at some level, the living system is learning. Learning can involve a living system passing information to another living system, or a living system obtaining information and using it in a feedback loop. That information can include knowledge, experience, behavior, and skills. Learning takes place when information that is new to the recipient is used to modify existing behavior or skills. The making and use of tools by some species of birds and mammals is a learned behavior. If a chimpanzee uses a stick to successfully get ants out of an ant mound and continues to do so, it has learned that behavior. If another chimpanzee observes this technique and replicates it, it has learned from the first chimp.

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Biomaterials from Hokkaido University contain double-network hydrogels that become stronger in response to mechanical stress.

Benefits

Dynamic
Responsive

Applications

Medical implants
Medical treatment

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 3: Good Health & Wellbeing

The Challenge

Bioengineered materials could become essential technologies in regenerative and personalized medicine due to their customizable nature. Unfortunately, the materials typically used are static, non-living material, which are unable to morph autonomously.

Innovation Details

The biomaterial is made of a double-network hydrogel. The hydrogel consists of water, a rigid and a soft, stretchy polymer. The hydrogel is placed in a solution containing monomers that are naturally attracted to the broken areas in the hydrogel. When mechanical stresses cause the hydrogel to break, the monomers join to rebuild it, strengthening the material.

Biomimicry Story

Skeletal muscle grows through repeated exercise. When the muscle fibers break down, they signals new, stronger muscle fibers to grow and replace the broken ones. The result of this system is the natural growth of muscles in areas that are physically stressed.

References

Journal article

Mechanoresponsive self-growing hydrogels inspired by muscle training

Science

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