Using Artificial Proteins, Engineers Create a Biomaterial that Mimics Muscle Elasticity

By Clay Dillow Posted 05.06.2010 at 11:56 am 5 Comments

Muscular Elasticity There's not much like it in the materials world, but a new artificial protein engineering method has turned out a biomaterial that mimics the elasticity of natural muscle. liber via Flickr

In a breakthrough that could lead to significant advances in materials science and tissue engineering, researchers at the U. of British Colombia have engineered a solid biomaterial that mimics the elasticity of muscle. Using artificial proteins, the team was able to recreate the molecular structure of the protein titin, which plays a vital role in making our muscles the versatile tissues that they are.

Titin -- which is sometimes known as connectin -- gives our muscles a good deal of their elasticity. The biomaterial based on the artificial titin possesses high resilience at low strain, yet is tougher when the strain is ratcheted up. This is an important quality of real muscle tissue, and the defining characteristic of the new biomaterial.

"A hallmark of titin-like proteins is that they unfold under a stretching force to dissipate energy and prevent damage to tissues by over-stretching," said UBC Zoology Professor and co-creator of the material John Gosline in a press release. "We've been able to replicate one of the more unique characteristics exhibited by muscle tissues, but not all of them."

While it's not quite as good as the real thing, the faux-muscle material can be tailored to exhibit different functional properties via the artificial proteins, meaning the researchers can customize it to mimic different muscle types.

The material has clear applications in tissue engineering and other biotech pursuits, but its unique properties of elasticity could have some interesting implications for materials scientists as well.

[Eurekalert]

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5 Comments

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nuclearmoose

05/05/10 at 7:37 pm

"...researchers at the U. of British Colombia..."

That would be British Columbia. I'm sure Colombia is a nice country, and I'm sure that South America is a nice continent, but I'm sure that I live in British Columbia, which is neither a country nor in South America. Sometimes those auto-spellchecking tools just don't cut the mustard, eh? :)

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CDales1004

05/06/10 at 1:33 pm

This has some potentially great applications, but I could have sworn that I saw a science show a few years back that discussed already having this sort of tech.
I vaguely recall seeing blue-colored muscles being used to emulate arm muscles.
I wish that I could recall that show and channel.

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BobStuart

05/06/10 at 7:41 pm

A nice little stress-strain curve would have done wonders to make up for the vague terminology.
Bob Stuart

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joedonaldson83

05/07/10 at 10:15 am

Remind anyone else of Terminator? LOL. Do these materials have particular tensile strengths? I dunno if I'm phrasing that right but what I mean is, if we used this material to craft artificial musculature that could be incorporated into current prosthetics would that result in a strength increase: i.e cybernetics? Maybe a dumb question but this kind of a material could have really interesting applications in robotics yes? We already know how musculature is laid out on the human framework, can this material be manipulated to form fibrous strands similar to muscle tissue? Theoretically it could then be attached to some sort of skeletal framework right? Can this material be altered to contract under electrical stimulus? Wow so many questions lol. I'm sure this will spark some sort of discussion. I'm eager to hear some feedback.

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lokimotion

05/12/10 at 10:11 am

I could care less about this. People should just get off their lazy asses, and work out, but w/e idc. The only thing that caught my attention, is the woman :P

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