LSW Style

Polymer gel is categorized as soft & wet materials the same as biological soft tissues. We focus on

1. understanding the principles of emergence of excellent function of biological soft tissues from a material science standpoint.
2. creating artificially excellent soft & wet materials having soft tissue-like functions.

The ultimate goal we set as our research objective is:

1. developing super-strong and high-functioning gels compared with soft tissues of the body such as muscle, cartilage, and tendon
2. applying in a variety of scientific fields, including medical fields

We are involved in the following studies.

1. Creating a highly strong, highly tough, and highly viscous hydrogel having a hierarchically-ordered complex structure, and unraveling the principles of emergence of function
2. Studies on surface friction and lubrication of hydrogels and creation of super low-friction hydrogels
3. Creation of a novel hydrogel as cell scaffolds and its application in cell differentiation induction
4. Creation of a functional hydrogel in using motor proteins and its application to biomachine
5. Application of hydrogels as artificial cartilages, muscles and blood vessels
6. Studying on the adhesion of barnacles, and developing hydrogels with antifouling function against barnacles