Superglue can save lives.
For more than 20 years, Berkeley Professor Phillip Messersmith has looked to nature to help him invent new resins and adhesives with medical and industrial applications.
“Some people refer to that as biomimetics. I favor bioinspiration,” Messersmith says. Initially captivated by the “glue proteins” secreted by mussels to attach to rocks, Messersmith studies natural molecules with an eye to creating analogous ones from synthetic materials in the lab.
One such molecule, lipoic acid, is produced in our bodies to help with cell respiration, providing us with energy. It’s also a building block, or monomer, that materials scientists use to build larger molecules, or polymers.
“A really creative postdoc in the lab, Subhajit Pal, was curious [about this molecule],” Messersmith says. While lipoic acid’s “stretchiness” makes it a versatile substance, its polymerized version tends to break apart when exposed to water.
“Subhajit, he’s a chemist, and he started thinking about how one might manipulate the polymer chemistry to improve the stability,” he adds.
By modifying 7 to 15 percent of lipoic acid monomers with the molecule N-hydroxysuccinimide, Pal created a stable solution that would form a superglue on contact with water. That superglue could be applied during surgery to incisions in the amniotic sac, the layers of tissue surrounding a fetus in the uterus.
Starting small, Messersmith’s team applied the new polymer adhesive via a “patch” to the fetal membranes of lab mice, into which they poked holes. All of the mice fetuses in patched uteruses survived without issue while all of the “control” mice died.
The next step is to try the polymer adhesive on a larger animal like a sheep. If that works, it’s on to humans. An effective superglue holds promise for pregnant women in two situations: one, when the fetal membranes rupture spontaneously in the third trimester and need to be repaired; and two, when a surgeon needs to enter the uterus to perform a procedure on the fetus and then patch the surgical incision.
“That’s why we do this, to eventually apply it to humans,” Messersmith says.
