Project Description

Look to the seas and you will find creatures such as mussels, barnacles, and oysters sticking themselves to wet rocks. Man-made adhesives, by contrast, fail miserably when tasked with wet adhesion. Consequently, we rely upon painful sutures, staples, and screws to repair damage from injuries or surgical procedures. Our laboratories are working together in developing a series of new adhesives to connect tissues when surrounded by blood. We take design cues from shellfish to then create wet-setting glues based upon several protein and synthetic polymer systems. In doing so, we have shown strong adhesion underwater. The glues can also rapidly seal a wide variety of tissues. Cytotoxicity and animal biocompatibility testing also look promising. The most pressing future directions to take are creating surgical adhesives and sealants for bonding soft as well as hard tissues. Applications envisioned here include orthopedic repair, dental attachment, and attachment of soft tissues. Work will include using biomimetic adhesives to bond different tissue types. Creative development of methods and adaptation of adhesives will also be part of this work. Our long-term goal is to make sutures obsolete.

Start Date

June 1, 2025

Post Doc Qualifications

*Highly motivated and independent researcher
*Excellent written and oral communication skills
*Strong publication record
*Eager to join interdisciplinary team that touches on topics in chemical engineering, chemistry, marine biology, materials science, and biomedical engineering  

Co-Advisors

Julie Liu, julieliu@purdue.edu, Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, https://engineering.purdue.edu/LiuGroup

Jonathan Wilker, wilker@purdue.edu, Department of Chemistry, https://www.chem.purdue.edu/wilker/

Bibliography

1. "A bioinspired elastin-based protein for a cytocompatible underwater adhesive"
M. Jane Brennan, Bridget Kilbride, Jonathan J. Wilker, Julie C. Liu
Biomaterials, 2017, Volume 124, pages 116-125.

2. "High Strength Underwater Bonding with Polymer Mimics of Mussel Adhesive Proteins"
Michael North, Chelsey A. Del Grosso, Jonathan Wilker
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2017, Volume 9, Issue 8, pages 7866-7872.

3. "Integrating Mussel Chemistry into a Bio-Based Polymer to Create Degradable Adhesives"
Courtney L. Jenkins, Heather M. Siebert, Jonathan Wilker
Macromolecules, 2017, Volume 50, Issue 2, pages 561-568.

4. "Cytocompatibility Studies of a Mussel-Inspired Poly(Lactic Acid)-Based Adhesive "
Sydney Hollingshead, Heather Siebert, Jonathan J. Wilker, Julie C. Liu
Journal of Biomedical Materials Research: Part A, 2022, Volume 110, pages 43-51

5. “Effect of Cross-Linkers on Mussel- and Elastin-Inspired Adhesives on Physiological Substrates”
Sydney Hollingshead, Jessica E. Torres, Jonathan J. Wilker, Julie C. Liu
ACS Applied Bio Materials, 2022, Volume 5, pages 630-641.