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, 2026

Postdoc 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, [email protected], Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, https://engineering.purdue.edu/LiuGroup

Jonathan Wilker, [email protected], 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. “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.

5. “Biocompatibility of Mussel-Inspired Water-Soluble Tissue Adhesives” A.V. Menon, A.A. Putnam-Neeb, C.E. Brown, C.J. Crain, G.J. Breur, S.K. Narayanan, J.J. Wilker, and J.C. Liu, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, 2022, Volume 112, pages 2243-2256.