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A shock-absorbing material made from a mechanosensitive protein

Nature Nanotechnology volume 18, pages 977–978 (2023)Cite this article

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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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Fig. 1: Engineering talin for use in materials.

References

  1. 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.

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  2. 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.

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  4. 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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