Certain proteins have been optimized over millennia to exhibit shock-absorbing capabilities. To harness these capabilities, synthetic biology was used to incorporate the mechanosensitive protein talin into a hydrogel. The resulting talin shock-absorbing material (TSAM) retains the mechanical properties of talin and can absorb the impact of, as well as capture, supersonic projectiles.
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References
Klapholz, B. & Brown, N. H. Talin – the master of integrin adhesions. J. Cell Sci. 130, 2435–2446 (2017). A review article that describes the central role of talin in integrin adhesions.
Goult, B. T. et al. Talin in mechanomemory and mechanotransduction at a glance. J. Cell Sci. 134, jcs258749 (2021). A review article that describes talin’s role in mechanotransduction.
Yao, M. et al. The mechanical response of talin. Nat. Commun. 7, 11966 (2016). This paper reports how talin has shock-absorbing properties.
Goult, B. T. et al. RIAM and vinculin binding to talin are mutually exclusive and regulate adhesion assembly and turnover. J. Biol. Chem. 288, 8238–8249 (2013). This paper reports the domain structure of talin.
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This is a summary of: Doolan, J. A. et al. Next-generation protein-based materials capture and preserve projectiles from supersonic impacts. Nat. Nanotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01431-1 (2023).
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A shock-absorbing material made from a mechanosensitive protein. Nat. Nanotechnol. 18, 977–978 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01434-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-023-01434-y
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