Tough adhesives for diverse wet surfaces

Sticky even when wet Tissue adhesives are used as an alternative to stitches or staples and can be less damaging to the healthy tissues. But they can suffer from low biocompatibility and poor matching of the mechanical properties with the tissues. Li et al. combined an adhesive surface with a flexible matrix to develop an adhesive that has the right level of stick but moves with the surrounding tissues. The adhesive is effective in the presence of blood and thus might work during wound repair. Science , this issue p. 378