Mechanically-Tough Fibrin-Based Actomyosin Soft Actuator Driven by ATP

This paper proposes a fibrin-based actomyosin soft actuator with excellent mechanical strength. The actuator is composed of motor proteins derived from chicken's skeletal muscle tissues and is driven by converting chemical energy from adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into kinetic energy. Furthermore, it is superior to the collagen-based actomyosin soft actuator in a previous study in terms of toughness and protection of actomyosin from thermal damage. We succeeded in fabricating the fibrin-based actomyosin soft actuator and their drive by ATP. The Young's modulus of the actuator was ~ 15 kPa that is a significant improvement compared to a collagen actuator (<1 kPa). This study is expected to contribute to the realization of motor proteins bottom-up soft actuators that imitates the molecular structure and actuation of skeletal muscle.