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| Photo courtesy CSIRO |
It looks like a strand of cooked spaghetti but looks are deceptive.
This little strip of rubbery material has caused a flurry of excitement around the world since Dr Chris Elvin (pictured) announced in October a team of Australian scientists had been able to copy nature and produce a new rubber-like material with remarkable properties of resilience.
Dr Elvin, principal research scientist with CSIRO Livestock Industries in Brisbane, got the inspiration for his research project from the dragonfly and the gymnastics of the humble flea to produce a polymer based on an elastic protein called resilin.
Resilin is what gives fleas their amazing jumping ability or enables bees to flap their wings 500 million times in a lifecycle. In laymen's terms resilin's outstanding properties are elasticity for flight and motion and durability to survive fatigue caused by repetition.
The much-talked about discovery, after four years' work, is predicted to have a significant impact in both industry and medicine.
It is being touted for use as a high efficiency rubber for industry, in spinal disc implants, blood vessel substitutes and even to add spring to the heels of running shoes.
Dr Elvin, who has a PhD in Biochemistry from Cambridge University, has been working for CSIRO in Queensland since 1988. The resilin research was funded by a CSIRO Emerging Sciences Area Grant.
He says the research involved cloning the gene of the fruit fly, introducing it into bacteria and using the bacteria as a factory to turn it into the protein the scientists wanted.
To produce a solid material from the soluble, a rapid photochemical method was used to crosslink the soluble into an insoluble gel.
While the project was led by Dr Elvin, it also involved specialised input from CSIRO's Divisions of Textile Fibre Technology, Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology and Molecular and Health Technologies. Other key collaborators include the University of Queensland, Monash University, University of South Australia and the Australian National University.
Dr Elvin says it is likely to be 10 years before the substance is used in human research projects.
In the meantime his scientific team is exploring other methods of producing artificial resilin materials and trying to understand the molecular basis of its properties.
"There are a number of ways we can harness the properties of this remarkable material."
"It's very exciting work."
Last reviewed 19 January 2006