Feedback-controlled hydrogels with homeostatic oscillations and dissipative signal transduction

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

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2022-12

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en

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15

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Nature Nanotechnology

Abstract

Driving systems out of equilibrium under feedback control is characteristic for living systems, where homeostasis and dissipative signal transduction facilitate complex responses. This feature not only inspires dissipative dynamic functionalities in synthetic systems but also poses great challenges in designing novel pathways. Here we report feedback-controlled systems comprising two coupled hydrogels driven by constant light, where the system can be tuned to undergo stable homeostatic self-oscillations or damped steady states of temperature. We demonstrate that stable temperature oscillations can be utilized for dynamic colours and cargo transport, whereas damped steady states enable signal transduction pathways. Here mechanical triggers cause temperature changes that lead to responses such as bending motions inspired by the single-touch mechanoresponse in Mimosa pudica and the frequency-gated snapping motion inspired by the plant arithmetic in the Venus flytrap. The proposed concepts suggest generalizable feedback pathways for dissipative dynamic materials and interactive soft robotics.

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We thank Henri Savolainen for the help with AuNPs synthesis, Jaakko Timonen for the help with numerical simulation, Olena Khoruzhenko for the help with figure illustrations, Haotian Pi for the discussion on heat transfer processes, and the provision of facilities and technical support by Aalto University at OtaNano - Nanomicroscopy Center (Aalto-NMC). We acknowledge funding from Academy of Finland (Postdoctoral Researcher No. 331015 to H. Zhang, Research Fellow No. 340263 to H. Zeng, Center of Excellence in Life-Inspired Hybrid Materials - LIBER No. 346107 to A.P. and No. 346108 to O.I. the PREIN Flagship Programme No. 320165), and the European Research Council (Advanced Grant DRIVEN No. 742829 to O.I. and Starting Grant PHOTOTUNE No. 679646 to A.P.) | openaire: EC/H2020/742829/EU//DRIVEN

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Citation

Zhang, H, Zeng, H, Eklund, A, Guo, H, Priimagi, A & Ikkala, O 2022, ' Feedback-controlled hydrogels with homeostatic oscillations and dissipative signal transduction ', Nature Nanotechnology, vol. 17, no. 12, pp. 1303-1310 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-022-01241-x