UBCO researchers engineer DNA to mimic biological catch bonds

Photo: UBCO

Dr. Isaac Li, along with students David Bakker and Micah Yang, prepare an experiment as they work to understand counter-intuitive biological interaction, like catch bonds and how cells physically interact with each other.

The University of British Columbia Okanagan has made a breakthrough in next-generation adhesives.

UBCO researchers have engineered DNA to mimic biological catch bonds, an approach that replicates the efficiency and adaptability of natural systems.

Dr. Isaac Li and his team have been studying biophysics at the single-molecule and single-cell levels as they try to understand how cells physically interact with each other and their environment. The ultimate goal is to develop tools for disease diagnosis and therapy.

Two of Dr. Li’s doctoral students, Micah Yang and David Bakker, have engineered a new molecule that could transform how cells adhere to and communicate with one another.

Yang, the study’s lead author, explains that all cells have a natural “stickiness” that enables them to communicate, join together and form tissues. Unlike everyday glues, which tend to release more easily under increasing force, many cellular adhesive interactions behave the opposite way, the harder you pull, the stronger they hold. This counterintuitive self-strengthening stickiness is known as a catch bond.

“Catch bonds play critical roles in systems like T-cell receptors and bacterial adhesions, which are key to immune responses, tissue integrity and mechano-sensing — a cell’s ability to detect and respond to physical forces,” says Yang. “Nature has perfected these interactions over millions of years, but replicating their dynamic properties synthetically has been a major challenge, until now."

Dubbed the “fish hook” for its distinctive structure, this DNA-based system consists of two components: the fish and the hook. Using complementary DNA base-pair interactions, the system functions like a fish biting a hook to form a catch bond. The bond’s behaviour can be precisely fine-tuned by modifying the DNA sequences of the fish and the hook, enabling control over its strength under varying forces.

“By mimicking biological interactions like catch bond, scientists are not only learning more about how these systems work in nature, but they are paving the way for new technologies that are capable of enhancing human life,” Yang says.

The development of artificial adhesion bonds is still in its early days, but this work opens up new possibilities for designing materials that mimic or enhance natural biological processes.

The study was recently published in Nature Communications.