In a first-of-its-kind advance, a team of UBC Okanagan researchers has developed an artificial adhesion system that closely mimics natural biological interactions.
Dr. Isaac Li and his team at the Irving K. Barber College of Science study biophysics at the single-molecule and single-cell level. His research focuses on understanding how cells physically interact with each other and their environment, with the ultimate goal of developing innovative tools for disease diagnosis and therapy.
Two of Dr. Li’s doctoral students, Micah Yang and David Bakker, have designed a new molecule that could transform the way cells adhere and communicate with each other.
Micah Yang, lead author of the study, explains that all cells have a natural “stickiness” that allows them to communicate, join together and form tissues. Unlike everyday glues, which tend to release more easily with increasing force, many cellular adhesive interactions behave in the opposite way: the harder you pull, the stronger they stay. This counterintuitive, self-reinforcing stickiness, known as the capture bond, is crucial for facilitating essential biological functions and keeping you in one piece.
Yang’s innovation involves a pair of DNA molecules designed to replicate this capture bond behavior.
Nicknamed the “hook” for its distinctive structure, this DNA-based system consists of two components: the fish and the hook. Using complementary interactions of DNA base pairs, the system works like a fish taking a bait, forming a capture bond. The behavior of the link can be finely tuned by modifying the DNA sequences of the fish and the hook, allowing its strength to be controlled under different forces.
“Capture bonds play critical roles in systems such as T cell receptors and bacterial adhesions, which are key to immune responses, tissue integrity, and mechanosensing: the ability of a cell to detect and respond to physical forces.” “Yang says. “Nature has perfected these interactions over millions of years, but synthetically replicating their dynamic properties has been a major challenge, until now.
The study, recently published in Nature Communicationshighlights the advantages of this novel DNA-based system.
“The adjustability of this system is a significant advance over previous artificial catch bonuses,” Yang says. “The ability to precisely control bond strength-dependent behavior makes it an ideal tool for studying biological interactions and developing innovative materials.”
The potential applications of the hook link are enormous, Yang says.
In materials science, the design could inspire the creation of responsive materials that become stronger under stress, making them ideal for wearable technologies or aerospace applications where durability is critical.
In medicine, this approach could improve drug delivery systems or tissue supports by allowing them to interact with cells in a force-sensitive manner, mimicking natural biological processes.
While the development of artificial adhesion bonds is still in its infancy, Yang sees it as an exciting step in biomimetic engineering, an approach that seeks to replicate the efficiency and adaptability of natural systems. This work opens new possibilities for designing materials that imitate or improve natural biological processes.
“By mimicking biological interactions like the capture bond, scientists are not only learning more about how these systems work in nature, but they are also paving the way for new technologies that are capable of improving human life.”