A unified 3D phase diagram of growth induced surface instabilities

Biological world metabolizes itself with germination, growth, development, and aging every second. A variety of fascinating morphological patterns arise on surfaces of growing, developing or aging tissues, organs and micro--organism colonies. The basic mechanism has been long believed to be the mechanical mismatch due to -differential growth between layers with different biological compositions. These patterns have been observed in separate systems and topologically classified as crease, wrinkle-fold, period-double, ridge, delaminated-buckle, and coexistence states. However, a general and systematic understanding of their initiation and evolution remains largely elusive. We construct a unified 3D phase diagram that predicts initially flat tissue layers can transform to various instability patterns, systematically depending on three physical parameters: mismatch strain, modulus ratio between layers, and adhesion energy on the interface. Our phase diagram matches consistently with our mimic in vitro experiments and documented data in state-of-the-art literature

Designing bioinspired ondemand displays by electroactivating mechanochemically responsive elastomers

Cephalopods display dazzling colors by locally contracting skin muscles that reversibly activate chromatophores pigments. Inspired by this bioluminescent strategy, we demonstrate a new on-demand display by selectively activating a mechanochemically responsive elastomer controlled by external electric fields. The mechanoresponsive elastomer covalently embedded with mechanochromic molecules, if loaded with sufficiently large force, can reversibly emit visible color and strong fluorescent signals. Upon this reactive elastomer, we employ a controlled electric field to trigger a self-assembled topological pattern that features patterned large deformation, hence displaying a fluorescent pattern. The fluorescent intensity can be predicted by analyzing three-dimensional deformation of the reactive elastomer. We demonstrate on-demand displays such as self-assembled fluorescent rings and lines, and other arbitrary geometries such as letters. The reported technique may pave ways for creating next generation optoelectronics, biomedical luminescent devices, dynamic camouflage coatings, and photoelastic elastomer for damage detection

Interferon-alpha responsible EPN3 regulates hepatitis B virus replication

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a major health problem worldwide, and the current antiviral therapy, including nucleoside analogs, cannot achieve life-long cure, and clarification of antiviral host immunity is necessary for eradication. Here, we found that a clathrin-binding membrane protein epsin3 (EPN3) negatively regulates the expression of HBV RNA. EPN3 expression was induced by transfection of an HBV replicon plasmid, and reduced HBV-RNA level in hepatic cell lines and murine livers hydrodynamically injected with the HBV replicon plasmid. Viral RNA reduction by EPN3 was dependent on transcription, and independent from epsilon structure of viral RNA. Viral RNA reduction by overexpression of p53 or IFN-α treatment, was attenuated by knockdown of EPN3, suggesting its role downstream of IFN-α and p53. Taken together, this study demonstrates the anti-HBV role of EPN3. The mechanism how it decreases HBV transcription is discussed

A three-dimensional phase diagram of growth-induced surface instabilities

A variety of fascinating morphological patterns arise on surfaces of growing, developing or aging tissues, organs and microorganism colonies. These patterns can be classified into creases, wrinkles, folds, period-doubles, ridges and delaminated-buckles according to their distinctive topographical characteristics. One universal mechanism for the pattern formation has been long believed to be the mismatch strains between biological layers with different expanding or shrinking rates, which induce mechanical instabilities. However, a general model that accounts for the formation and evolution of these various surface-instability patterns still does not exist. Here, we take biological structures at their current states as thermodynamic systems, treat each instability pattern as a thermodynamic phase, and construct a unified phase diagram that can quantitatively predict various types of growth-induced surface instabilities. We further validate the phase diagram with our experiments on surface instabilities induced by mismatch strains as well as the reported data on growth-induced instabilities in various biological systems. The predicted wavelengths and amplitudes of various instability patterns match well with our experimental data. It is expected that the unified phase diagram will not only advance the understanding of biological morphogenesis, but also significantly facilitate the design of new materials and structures by rationally harnessing surface instabilities.United States. Office of Naval Research (N00014-14-1-0528)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CMMI-1253495)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CMMI-1200515

Multifunctionality and control of the crumpling and unfolding of large-area graphene

Crumpled graphene films are widely used, for instance in electronics energy storage, composites and biomedicine. Although it is known that the degree of crumpling affects graphene’s properties and the performance of graphene-based devices and materials the controlled folding and unfolding of crumpled graphene films has not been demonstrated. Here we report an approach to reversibly control the crumpling and unfolding of large-area graphene sheets. We show with experiments, atomistic simulations and theory that, by harnessing the mechanical instabilities of graphene adhered on a biaxially pre-stretched polymer substrate and by controlling the relaxation of the pre-strains in a particular order, graphene films can be crumpled into tailored self-organized hierarchical structures that mimic superhydrophobic leaves. The approach enables us to fabricate large-area conductive coatings and electrodes showing superhydrophobicity, high transparency, and tunable wettability and transmittance. We also demonstrate that crumpled graphene–polymer laminates can be used as artificial-muscle actuators

Evolutionary design of magnetic soft continuum robots

Worldwide cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart disease are the leading cause of mortality. While guidewire/catheter-based minimally invasive surgery is used to treat a variety of cardiovascular disorders, existing passive guidewires and catheters suffer from several limitations such as low steerability and vessel access through complex geometry of vasculatures and imaging-related accumulation of radiation to both patients and operating surgeons. To address these limitations, magnetic soft continuum robots (MSCRs) in the form of magnetic field–controllable elastomeric fibers have recently demonstrated enhanced steerability under remotely applied magnetic fields. While the steerability of an MSCR largely relies on its workspace—the set of attainable points by its end effector—existing MSCRs based on embedding permanent magnets or uniformly dispersing magnetic particles in polymer matrices still cannot give optimal workspaces. The design and optimization of MSCRs have been challenging because of the lack of efficient tools. Here, we report a systematic set of model-based evolutionary design, fabrication, and experimental validation of an MSCR with a counterintuitive nonuniform distribution of magnetic particles to achieve an unprecedented workspace. The proposed MSCR design is enabled by integrating a theoretical model and the genetic algorithm. The current work not only achieves the optimal workspace for MSCRs but also provides a powerful tool for the efficient design and optimization of future magnetic soft robots and actuators