Biorheology with Applications - Adhesive Wall Climbing, Bacterial Motility, and Predatory Defense

Many biological systems involve viscoelastic material behavior for their function, including (i) the wall-climbing locomotion of snails, (ii) the motility of ulcer-causing bacteria through a biopolymer gel, and (iii) the predatory defense mechanism used by hagfish. Rheology plays a critical role in achieving the desired function in each system. This poster summarizes efforts to fundamentally understand the complex fluid rheology in these three inspiring biological systems, including experimental measurement of large deformation rheology, modeling of structure-property relationships, and modeling of systems which include non-Newtonian fluids as a component. Bioinspired engineering efforts are also described which deliberately use and extend the relevant viscoelastic properties for novel functionality; wall-climbing robots and tunable magnetic fluid adhesion are examples. Future developments will be enabled by a better understanding and description of these ubiquitous but technologically under-utilized materials.