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Not even Super Glue will stick in a fish aquarium because a layer of water forms that keeps the two surfaces from bonding

mussels somehow elbow the water aside and bind themselves to rocks anyway

Over 30 years, Waite’s team has uncovered the basis of this remarkable ability

parts of the proteins that face out toward the hard surface. It enables liquid holdfast proteins to solidify rapidly and stick flawlessly to wet and salty surfaces

If I were to list the desired properties for medical adhesives, they would look exactly the same

colleagues have created a synthetic, thread-like polymer called polyethylene glycol that mimics the mussel protein

To see if the compound worked in live animals, a veterinary surgeon collaborating with Messersmith's team made a 2.5-centimeter incision in the carotid artery of a dog and placed four stitches along the length of that incision to hold it in place

With the stitches alone, the incision bled when the surgeon pressed it.

just 20 seconds after the mussel-based glue was applied, the artery was sealed and didn’t bleed.

recently

team began testing its glue on fetal membranes

For the past few decades, surgeons have begun surgically repairing birth defects like spina bifida while a fetus is still in utero

the process is risky because the surgery risks rupturing the fetal membrane prematurely, sending the mother into premature labor.

There are no good adhesives on the market for surgeons to repair such fetal-membrane tears

in recent, unpublished experiments in rabbits, Messersmith and colleagues found that after a veterinary surgeon poked a 3.5-mm hole in the animal’s fetal membrane, the new, mussel-inspired glue readily sealed up the puncture

without the glue, only 40% of the fetal rabbits survived the surgery, but with the glue, 60% did.

In another recent result

researchers chemically altered the polyethylene glycol polymer so that the glue would shrink when it hardened

This could counter tissue swelling during surgery,

fetal surgeons working with Messersmith are testing whether the glue can help reseal the tissue surrounding the spinal cord to repair a serious birth defect known spinal bifida in rabbits