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Materials science

Muscle mimic

An elastic polymer has been made whose molecular structure mimics that of titin, a protein found in muscle. The resulting material is tough, stretchy and dissipates energy — just like muscle itself.

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Figure 1: Unravelling titin.

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Competing interests

Elliot L. Chaikof has submitted intellectual property in the area of elastomeric proteins and is a scientific founder of Ontogenesys, Inc., which seeks to utilize these materials in clinical applications.

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Chaikof, E. Muscle mimic. Nature 465, 44–45 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/465044a

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