Bring Biologists Into Biomimetics

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Studying the feet of a variety of gecko species would help scientists to design of a richer variety of dry adhesives. Bring biologists into biomimetics Engineers, chemists and others taking inspiration from biological systems for human applications must team up with biologists, writes Emilie Snell-Rood.

n the late 1940s, Swiss engineer George from architectural design and materials the production of spider silk (which has a de Mestral was inspired to invent Velcro to robotics and engineered tissues1,2 (see unique combination of strength and elastic- after picking burrs from the fur of his ‘Trends in biomimetics’). The fervour is ity) from genetically engineered silkworms3; Idog. Five decades later, Japanese engineer likely to be amplified by the emergence of and the development of catalysts akin to Eiji Nakatsu, who had a passion for bird the cheap and easy-to-use genome-editing components used in photosynthesis to watching, designed a high-speed train tool CRISPR–Cas9, which has dramatically improve the efficiency of solar power4. with an aerodynamic front shaped like a opened up the possibilities of altering organ- kingfisher’s beak. isms or their products. TAP EXPERTISE Over the past decade, there has been a Biomimicry successes in recent years Bioinspiration is poised to play a major surge of interest in such bioinspiration and include the mimicking of aquaporin mol- part in efforts to solve problems relating biomimicry — the imitation of biological ecules — proteins that form pores in the to health, energy efficiency and food secu- traits or systems in applications ranging membranes of cells — for desalinization; rity. To realize this promise, researchers

exploring such approaches need to take applications in industry10. much greater advantage of the knowl- TRENDS IN BIOMIMETICS Four further steps would encourage more edge and expertise of biologists — be they A search of the more than 25,000 papers in crossover between biology and biomimetics. ecologists, microbiologists or specialists in biomimicry shows the rising interest in the First, changes to education could encour- eld over the past decade, but studies are evolution, organisms, cells or molecules. mainly restricted to the physical sciences. age budding biomimicry researchers to The field of biomimicry mostly involves embrace more biology. Currently, under- chemists, engineers and materials scientists. 1,200 graduates who end up pursuing work in SOURCE: WEB OF SCIENCE Chemistry Fewer than 8% of the nearly 300 studies on Materials biomimicry are trained in the ‘application 1,000 biomimetics published in the past 3 months Engineering field’ of their choice — be it engineering, and indexed in the Thomson Reuters Web of Cell and molecular architecture or chemistry. Such students Science had an author working in a biology 800 biology should be required to take courses in the area department — a crude proxy for ‘a biolo- of biology that is likely to be most relevant to gist’. And in most papers on biomimetics, 600 them: perhaps molecular biology for those the relevant biodiversity gets short shrift. pursuing chemistry, or organismal or evolu- 400 In more than 80% of papers published on Number of papers tionary biology for those pursuing materials biomimetics in the past year, for instance, science or architecture. researchers consider only one species or 200 Second, we need textbooks that distil the refer to a biological element such as a ‘cell’ or essential principles of specific branches of 0 ‘enzyme’ in only a generalized way. Moreo- 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 biology for biomimetic approaches; existing ver, across studies that explore diverse pro- texts focus more on the applications. Data obtained by searching the Web of Science Core Collection cesses and systems, many of the same players with the term “biomim* or bioinspir*”. Third, matchmaking initiatives are come up: geckos, spiders and butterflies. needed to promote collaboration. Existing With around 1.5 million described species, conferences on biomimetics — such as the and probably some 9 million eukaryotic through evolutionary processes, which International Conference on Bioinspired species in existence, researchers pursuing depend on myriad factors such as the avail- and Biobased Chemistry and Materials, biomimetic approaches have barely scratched ability of genetic variation, are rarely perfect or the International Conference on Bio- the surface of biological inspiration. Biologists from an engineering perspective. A robotics inspired Systems and Signal Processing — from all sorts of disciplines have an extraor- engineer would not include a blind spot in could offer symposia or incentives to attract dinary store of knowledge that could guide a visual system, for instance. So research- biologists. Special events in the style of speed forays into a much richer diversity of natural ers should draw inspiration from multiple dating could allow biologists and those inter- systems. Such knowledge could also help to systems; the camera-type eyes (like those of ested in bioinspired applications to partner steer experimental approaches. humans) that have evolved independently in up based on their probable ability to solve a On the one hand, an understanding of a octopuses do not have a blind spot. Many of problem together. Online matchmaking sites particular organism’s biology can inspire the traits of interest in biomimetics — such might serve a similar purpose. specific applications. Naked mole rats, for as the dry adhesion of gecko toe pads or the Last, companies could bring in broadly instance, which can live up to about 30 years iridescent coloration of butterfly wings7 — trained evolutionary and other biologists, — an order of magnitude longer than related have evolved many times independently. for instance through ‘biologist-in- rodents — may have adaptations that are This offers researchers different ways to residence’ programmes. Such collabora- relevant to the treatment of age-related dis- produce a trait of interest. tion would fast-track robust solutions, by eases such as cancer. Indeed, experiments Finally, biologists can help biomimicry enabling teams to explore innovations from have revealed that an extracellular substance researchers to explore processes that could across the tree of life. ■ makes the cells of naked mole rats remark- make applications more feasible. Reproduc- ably tumour-resistant5. ing the dry adhesion of a gecko toe pad or the Emilie Snell-Rood is an assistant professor On the other hand, biologists can match a strength of a composite material such as aba- of ecology, evolution and behaviour at problem that a researcher may be trying to lone shell is difficult because of the complex the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, tackle to a specific species, environment or nature of the structures involved2. To produce Minnesota, USA. She has designed courses suite of evolutionary conditions. For exam- such materials economically at scale, some in biomimetics and is developing butterflies ple, an understanding of the general condi- in biomimetics have turned to investigating as a system for biomimetic approaches tions that favour the evolution of altruism how structures are built as well as the struc- to health. — such as a high probability of repeated tures themselves. For example, photonics e-mail: [email protected] encounters with recognizable individu- researchers, interested in manipulating light, 1. Bhushan, B. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 367, 1445– als — may offer insights into how to design have begun trying to understand the develop- 1486 (2009). architectures and cityscapes that promote mental processes that produce butterfly-wing 2. Wegst, U. G. K. et al. Nature Mater. 14, 23–36 cooperation between people. scales8. And directed evolution is being used (2015). Evolutionary biologists, in particular, in the laboratory to produce new biocatalysts 3. Teulé, F. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 9 923–928 (2012). could help biomimicry researchers to use from pre-existing enzymes . 4. Kurz, P. in Solar Energy for Fuels (eds Tüysüz, H. & entire lineages of species to test general Chan, C. K.) 49–72 (2016). principles about how form and function EMBRACE TEAMWORK 5. Tian, X. et al. Nature 499, 346–349 (2013). relate to the environment. For instance, Various funding sources are increasingly 6. Swanson, B. O. et al. Evolution 60, 2539–2551 (2006). comparative studies of spiders indicate that supporting research that encompasses blue- 7. Vukusic, P. & Sambles, J. R. Nature 424, 852–855 different structural properties of silks have sky biological research and more applied (2003). evolved as species have adapted to different fields. Translational-research centres, such 8. Saranathan, V. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA environments6. as the Engineering Research Centers pro- 107, 11676–11681 (2010). 9. Otten, L. G. & Quax, W. J. Biomol. Eng. 22, 1–9 Comparative studies may also suggest gramme funded by the US National Science (2005). ways around the limitations of copying Foundation, are being established to help 10. Bozeman, B. & Boardman, C. J. Technol. Transfer a particular trait. Traits that have arisen to tie basic research to the development of 29, 365–375 (2004).