Biomimetic Adhesives – BioAd

Some natural adhesives can overcome man-made products. Self-assembling proteins with repetitive sequence motifs constitute glues of certain arthropod species. These sequences allow the design of modular biomimetic recombinant proteins to facilitate the study of these glues. We demonstrated that such proteins can form self-assemblies, showing surface-adhesive properties. In the BioAd project, we aim at exploiting these promising results with an ambitious interdisciplinary approach for the study of the self-assembly of these proteins in contact with various material surfaces as well as their mechanical adhesion properties and their biocompatibility. This approach, using simplified mimics of biological adhesives, will promote a better understanding of poorly understood natural adhesive systems and could lead to the generation of innovative, non-toxic, biocompatible glues.