Biomimicry examples in
Medicine and Biotech

Mosquito proboscis serrated geometry inspires less-painful micro-needles for drug delivery and blood sampling.

• ✿Inspired by: Mosquito proboscis (Aedes aegypti, Culex pipiens)
• ⚡︎Function: Mosquitoes must pierce tough insect or vertebrate skin using minimal muscular force, seeking blood vessels without causing pain that woul...
• ▣Company: Terumo Corporation (Japan); Kansai University research
• ◉Where: Japan

Bioadhesive technology that sticks to wet surfaces How do you stick something to a wet or uneven surface? Barnacles can adhere to uneven and contaminated surfaces. Spider webs are instantly dry and adhere to wet surfaces.

Arion subfuscus slug mucus inspires tough, flexible surgical glue adhering to wet tissue surfaces.

• ✿Inspired by: Arion subfuscus (Spanish slug) mucus composition
• ⚡︎Function: Slugs must adhere to wet environments (soil, plants soaked with rain, mucus films) whilst remaining flexible enough to move. They overcom...
• ▣Company: Limax Biosciences / Harvard University
• ◉Where: Harvard, USA

Vaccine stabilization technology inspired by tardigrade cryptobiosis allowing stable storage without refrigeration.

• ✿Inspired by: Tardigrades (water bears, Tardigrada phylum)
• ⚡︎Function: Mimics tardigrade preservation mechanisms for vaccine stabilization.
• ▣Company: Nova Labs
• ◉Where: USA

A waterproof, biodegradable adhesive bandage developed using gecko-inspired dry adhesion technology that mimics the van der Waals forces in gecko toe pads.

• ✿Inspired by: Gecko toe pads
• ⚡︎Function: Create a medical adhesive that is waterproof, biocompatible, biodegradable, and painless to remove
• ▣Company: Harvard University / MIT, Jeffrey Karp laboratory
• ◉Where: USA

Emboa Medical: Better Stroke Treatment Removing blood clots from the brain is a delicate and difficult job… Yes, it is brain surgery (well sort of - it’s restoring blood flow to the brain).

Bio-inspired Nano-scale Surface Texture - Fusion Bionic Straight out of a science function, Fusion Bionic is opening a new door to new nano-scale surface textures.

Distributed sentinel nodes like immune T-cells.

• ✿Inspired by: Human Immune System (T-cells, Sentinel Pattern)
• ⚡︎Function: Distributed sentinel nodes continuously monitor local health data—pharmacy dispensing patterns, hospital admissions, emergency department...
• ◉Where: USA

Inflammation-Reducing Materials Inspired by Viruses We all know how discouraging it can be to fall ill. Viruses and bacteria can attack our bodies by avoiding detection from our immune systems (which is supposed to fight them off for us).

Aspect Biosystems This innovative biotech company produces

Muscle Atrophy Prevention Inspired by Hibernating Squirrels Squirrel image: