Designing allostery-inspired response in mechanical networks
- Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
- Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
- Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Recent advances in designing metamaterials have demonstrated that global mechanical properties of disordered spring networks can be tuned by selectively modifying only a small subset of bonds. Here, using a computationally efficient approach, we extend this idea to tune more general properties of networks. With nearly complete success, we are then able to produce a strain between any two target nodes in a network in response to an applied source strain on any other pair of nodes by removing only ~1% of the bonds. We are also able to control multiple pairs of target nodes, each with a different individual response, from a single source, and to tune multiple independent source/target responses simultaneously into a network. We have fabricated physical networks in macroscopic 2D and 3D systems that exhibit these responses. This work is inspired by the long-range coupled conformational changes that constitute allosteric function in proteins. The fact that allostery is a common means for regulation in biological molecules suggests that it is a relatively easy property to develop through evolution. In analogy, our results show that long-range coupled mechanical responses are similarly easy to achieve in disordered networks.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; Inst. for Advanced Study (IAS) The Simons Center for Systems Biology, Princeton, NJ (United States); Simons Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF); National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-05ER46199; FG02-03ER46088; 305547; 327939; 60NANB15D055
- OSTI ID:
- 1344433
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1430120
- Journal Information:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 114 Journal Issue: 10; ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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