| Background and description
This project was co financed with another SSF-financed program, MASTEC
(Marine Science and Technology). The aim of the project was to investigate
the cohesive and adhesive properties of byssal proteins from the common blue
mussel. Many natural adhesives have an extremely high adhesive strength to
solid surfaces. Examples are certain adhesives from blue mussel and certain
algae. If the adhesion process and the chemical cross-linking of the adhesives
can be controlled, it will open many new application areas in biomaterials.
Examples of new application areas may be different forms of tissue adhesives,
and different application areas in dentistry.
Scientific results
A dominating part of the project was to develop Quartz Crystal Microbalance
with dissipation measurements (QCM-D) for the analysis of cross-linking of
adsorbed monolayers of mussel adhesive proteins. This work was successful,
and we have also used the technique for the investigation of other marine
adhesives, for example adhesives form algae. The most prominent finding is
that we, in real time, can monitor chemical cross-linking of the marine
adhesives. This demonstrates a possibility to control the cross-linking
reaction, which is a prerequisite for the development and use of marine
adhesives as a biomaterial "glue". One Ph.D. thesis was evolved from the
project, namely, Camilla Fant: "Studies on Cross-Linking and Protein-Protein
Interactions of Adhesive Proteins from the Blue Mussel" Ph.D. Dissertation
Göteborg University 2002.
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