Designing allostery-inspired response in mechanical networks
Author(s)
Rocks, Jason W.; Pashine, Nidhi; Bischofberger, Irmgard; Goodrich, Carl P.; Liu, Andrea J.; Nagel, Sidney R.; ... Show more Show less
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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 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.
Date issued
2017-02Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical EngineeringJournal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Citation
Rocks, Jason W. et al. “Designing Allostery-Inspired Response in Mechanical Networks.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, 10 (February 2017): 2520–2525 © 2017 National Academy of Sciences
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0027-8424
1091-6490