My report is entitled Strong adhesives for wound healing.

Slug Inspired, flexible medical bio-glue, sticks

to wet surfaces without toxicity.

This was created by a team of researchers from Wyss Institute at Harvard University inorder to make
surgical adhesives that can repair delicate organ without causing damages like the damage caused by
stitches, staples or the risk of air or fluid leaks.

The adhesive they have created was inspired from a slug Dusky Arion, which secretes a special kind of
mucus when threatened that glues it in place.

So ung special sa mucus na to is that it can be stretched up to 10 times its length, it can stick to wet
surfaces, it can be harden but remains flexible.

It was discovered that this mucus is composed of tough matrix peppered with positively charged
proteins, which inspired to create a double layered hydrogel adhesive.

The slug mucus bond to surfaces in three different ways first is electrostatic attration, since the mucus
contains primary amine which is positively charged and the tissue or cells is negatively charged they
tend to attract each other. Second is covalent bond between neigh boring atoms. And third is physical
interpenetration. Dito it can physically attach by intertwining surface proteins like tangled telephone
cords.

After few years of trial they created a prototype which perfectly mimicked the slugs durable double
layered hydrogel matrix.

The top layer is a hydrogel consisting of alginate polyacrylamide matrix and the second layer adhesive
layer that has a positively charged polymers protruding from its surface

This adhesive is still being developed and if successful, could be used to close wounds, cover puncture
holes and affix devices like pacemakers