Sanjay Kumar works at the University of California-Berkeley.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: Sanjay Kumar, a scientist at the University of California-Berkeley, has successfully discovered an extremely sensitive “smart” material from the protein taken from nerve cells.
The new discovery could lead to advancements in making biological sensors, flow valves and controlled drug release systems. The flexible and sensitive material can also lead to the development of new types of micro-fluidic devices that can handle and process liquid of very small volumes like saliva or blood for testing purposes.
Kumar, associate professor of bioengineering, said, “we created a new class of smart, protein-based materials whose structural principles are inspired by networks found in living cells.”
Kumar and his group of researchers ventured out to discover a biological version of synthetic coating that can be used in everyday products like paint and cosmetics so as to keep the minute elements from getting cluttered.
Often these types of synthetic materials are called as polymer brushes due to the brush-like appearance of the coating.
The new smart material is not a synthetic material but the protein in it has all the characters of synthetic brushes and a hand full of other benefits.
The abstract of the study says, “these brushes almost universally feature synthetic polymers, which are often heterogeneous and do not readily allow incorporation of chemical functionalities at precise sites along the constituent chains.”
Kumar also said that “the size and chemical sequence of these hair-like proteins are far easier to control when compared with their synthetic counterparts.”
The paper appeared in the science journal Nature Communications.