Serum albumin hydrogels designed by protein Re-association for self-powered intelligent interactive systems

Abstract

Advancements in protein structural engineering have made it possible to design protein materials that can mediate between humans and intelligent systems, manifesting a combination of characteristics such as elastic recovery, electrical conductivity, and stability. This work describes the design of a hydrogel using bovine serum albumin (BSA), based on protein-protein interactions and sulfhydryl-alkene click reactions. The multiple α-helices of BSA were intertwined together by the multi-armed olefin derivatives, acting like Lego blocks to form a gel network and locking in bound water and ions, thus imparting mechanical recovery characteristics (demonstrating 80 % recovery after the compressive strain and 638 % after tensile strain), electrical conductivity, resistance to freezing (maintaining mechanical properties after being frozen at -20 °C for 48 h), biocompatibility (the cell viability of mouse pre-osteoblast-like cells in the hydrogels was 97.5 %), antimicrobial properties, and biodegradability to the BSA hydrogels. A multi-channel wireless signal acquisition system based on BSA hydrogel devices designed for bioenergy conversion and harvesting was developed for the real-time detection of human motion along with a human-mechanics interaction system for manipulating robotic gestures with simple human finger movements. This restructuring of the BSA structure represents a significant advancement in the systematic exploration of protein structures and the development of protein materials. These applications serve as a secure bridge between humans and energy storage devices.