Contact: Lee Siegel
leesiegel@ucomm.utah.edu
801-581-8993
University of Utah

Tubes in Colony of Glue-making Worms

Caption: University of Utah bioengineer Russell Stewart looks over a chunk taken from a sandcastle worm colony on California's coast. The colony is made up of numerous individual tubes, each occupied by a single 1-inch-long worm. The worms make the tubes using their own natural, underwater glue and bits of sand and shell. Stewart has developed a synthetic version of the worm glue, and says it holds promise for use gluing together small pieces of bones in fractured knees, other joints and even faces.

Credit: Fred Hayes for the University of Utah

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