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Materials science

Muscle mimic

Nature volume 465, pages 44–45 (2010)Cite this article

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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.

In the 1920s, Nobel-prizewinning chemist Hermann Staudinger proposed that life emerges when molecules of sufficiently large size are assembled. Subsequent experimental studies confirmed the existence of Staudinger's giant biomolecules, and demonstrated that the size and structure of these molecules dictate their function at both the nano- and macroscopic scales. In this issue (page 69), Lv et al.1 go even further. They have made protein-based materials whose molecules adopt similar three-dimensional conformations to those of one of the biomolecules in muscle, and report that their materials also mimic the passive mechanical properties of muscle on the macroscopic scale. Their work demonstrates that synthetic biopolymers can be constructed that emulate and expand on the technologically useful features of their natural counterparts.

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Figure 1: Unravelling titin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Elliot L. Chaikof is in the Department of Surgery, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA, and the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA. echaiko@emory.edu,

    Elliot L. Chaikof

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  1. Elliot L. Chaikof
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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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