Publications

 

 

• The invisible sustainability problem of glues and how to solve it
  Jonathan J. Wilker
  Nature Sustainability, 2026

• Burst Pressure and Fatigue Durability of Commercially Available Duraplasty Sealants
  Katherine L. Lauritsen, Aishwarya V. Menon, Kaete A. Archer, Myah D. Webb, Jonathan Y. Ting, Jonathan J. Wilker, Julie C. Liu, Vijay R. Ramakrishnan
  International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology, 2026

• Mimicking Oyster Reefs to Generate Cements with Enhanced Performance
  Mitchell E. Meger, Collin R. Scott, Jonathan J. Wilker
  Chemistry of Materials, 2026

• Plant-Based Underwater Adhesives Developed for Bonding Coral in Sea Water
  Gudrun Schmidt, Logan H. Kitts, Racheal V. Fisher, Nol Supasueb, Jonathan J. Wilker
  ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 2025, 7 (16), 10395-10403

• Formulation of Catechol-Containing Adhesives for Enhanced Underwater Bonding and Workability
  Cindy L. Atencio-Martinez, Alexandre Lancelot, Jonathan J. Wilker
  Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, 2025, 2467617

• Adhesion of Catechol-Functionalized Linear-Dendritic Block Copolymers: Dendritic Effect, Self-Assembly, and Bioadhesion
  A. Lancelot, M. E. Meger, E. Guerreiro Gómez, T. Sierra, J. J. Wilker
  Adv. Funct. Mater. 2024, 2413398

• Biocompatibility of mussel-inspired water-soluble tissue adhesives
  Aishwarya V. Menon, Amelia A. Putnam-Neeb, Caitlin E. Brown, Christa J. Crain, Gert J. Breur, Sanjeev K. Narayanan, Jonathan J. Wilker, Julie C. Liu
  J Biomed. Mater. Res. 2024; 1-14

• Positive Charge Influences on the Surface Interactions and Cohesive Bonding of a Catechol-Containing Polymer.
  Jennifer M. Garcia-Rodriguez and Jonathan J. Wilker.
  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2024, 16 (12), 15435-15445

• Sustainably sourced components to generate high-strength adhesives.
  Westerman, C.R., McGill, B.C. & Wilker, J.J.
  Nature 621, 306–311 (2023). 

• Blends of Conjugated and Adhesive Polymers for Sticky Organic Thin-Film Transistors.
  ​Sutjianto, J. G., Yoo, S. H., Westerman, C. R., Jackson, T. N., Wilker, J. J., Gomez, E. D., 
  Adv. Electron. Mater. 2023, 2300422.

• "Underwater Bonding with a Biobased Adhesive from Tannic Acid and Zein Protein"
  Gudrun Schmidt*, Peter E. Christ, Paige E. Kertes, Racheal V. Fisher, Logan J. Miles, and Jonathan J. Wilker
  ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2023, Volume 15, Issue 27, pages 32863–32874 

• "Increasing the Scale and Decreasing the Cost of Making a Catechol-Containing Adhesive Polymer"
  Alexandre Lancelot, Amelia A. Putnam-Neeb, S. Lee Huntington, Jennifer M. Garcia-Rodriguez, Nevin Naren, Cindy L. Atencio-Martinez, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Macromolecules 2023, Volume 56, Issue 3, pages 1141-1153

• "Effect of Cross-Linkers on Mussel- and Elastin-Inspired Adhesives on Physiological Substrates"
  Sydney Hollingshead, Jessica E. Torres, Jonathan J. Wilker*, and Julie C. Liu*
  ACS Applied Bio Materials 2022, Volume 5, Issue 2, pages 630–641

• "Tunable Tannic Acid–Zein Adhesives for Bonding Different Substrates"
  Gudrun Schmidt*, Kylie H. Smith, Logan J. Miles, Carissa K. Gettelfinger, Jana A. Hawthorne, Erin C. Fruzyna, Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Advanced Sustainable Systems 2022, page 2100392

• "Rare metal, precious adhesion"
  Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Science 2021, Volume 374, Issue 6564, pages 148-150

• "Cytocompatibility of a mussel-inspired poly(lactic acid)-based adhesive"
  Sydney Hollingshead, Heather Siebert, Jonathan J. Wilker*, Julie C. Liu*
  Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A 2021, pages 1–9

• "Changing polymer catechol content to generate adhesives for high versus low energy surfaces"
  Amelia A. Putnam and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Soft Matter 2021, Volume 17, pages 1999-2009

• "Influences of Phosphates on the Adhesion of a Catechol-Containing Polymer"
  Taylor A. Jones and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  ACS Applied Polymer Materials 2020, Volume 2, Issue 11, pages 4632-4639

• "Surface hydration for antifouling and bio-adhesion"
  Chelsey A. Del Grosso, Chuan Leng, Kexin Zhang, Hsiang-Chieh Hung, Shaoyi Jiang*, Zhan Chen* and  Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Chemical Science 2020, Volume 11, page 10367

• "Availability of Environmental Iron Influences the Performance of Biological Adhesives Produced by Blue Mussels"
  Natalie A. Hamada, Christopher Gilpin, Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Environmental Science & Technology 2020, Volume 54, Issue 16, pages 10254–10260

• "Weak Bonds in a Biomimetic Adhesive Enhance Toughness and Performance"
  Michael G. Mazzotta, Amelia A. Putnam, Michael A. North, Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of the American Chemical Society 2020, Volume 142, Issue 10, pages 4762-4768

• "Strong Adhesives from Corn Protein and Tannic Acid"
  Gudrun Schmidt*, Jessyca T. Woods, Lawrence X.-B. Fung, Christopher J. Gilpin, Bruce R. Hamaker, Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Advanced Sustainable Systems, 2019, 1900077.

• "Deriving Commercial Level Adhesive Performance from a Bio-Based Mussel Mimetic Polymer"
  Heather Siebert, Jonathan J. Wilker*
  ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 15, pages 13315-13323.

• "Silk-Like Protein with Persistent Radicals Identified in Oyster Adhesive by Solid-State NMR"
  Keith J. Fritzsching, Pu Duan, Erik M. Alberts, Andrés M. Tibabuzo Perdomo, Paul Kenny, Jonathan J. Wilker*, Klaus Schmidt-Rohr*
  ACS Applied Bio Materials, 2019, Volume 2, Issue 7, pages 2840-2852.

• "Improving the molecular weight and synthesis of a renewable biomimetic adhesive polymer"
  Heather M. Siebert, Jonathan J. Wilker*
  European Polymer Journal, 2019, Volume 113, pages 321-327. 

• "Cooking Chemistry Transforms Proteins into High-Strength Adhesives"
  Jessica K. Román, Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2019, Volume 141, Issue 3, pages 1359-1365. 

• "Disordered Structures in Biology Can Provide Material Properties not Obtained with Precise Hierarchy"
  Rebecca A. Metzler, Francois Barthelat, Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Advanced Functional Materials, 2018.

• "Critical factors for the bulk adhesion of engineered elastomeric proteins"
  M. Jane Brennan, Sydney E. Hollingshead, Jonathan J. Wilker*, Julie C. Liu*
  Royal Society Open Science, 2018.

• "Changes in Cementation of Reef Building Oysters Transitioning from Larvae to Adults"
  Andrés M. Tibabuzo Perdomo, Erik M. Alberts, Stephen D. Taylor, Debra M. Sherman, Chia-Ping Huang, Jonathan Wilker*
  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018.

• High Strength Adhesives from Catechol Cross-Linking of Zein Protein and Plant Phenolics"
  Gudrun Schmidt, Bruce R. Hamaker, Jonathan Wilker*
  Advanced Sustainable Systems, 2018, Volume 2, Issue 3, 1700159.

• "How to Suck like an Octopus"
  Jonathan Wilker*
  Nature, 2017, Volume 546, Issue 7658, pages 358-359.

• "Examining Potential Active Tempering of Adhesive Curing by Marine Mussels"
  Natalie A. Hamada, Victor A. Roman, Steven M. Howell, Jonathan Wilker*
  Biomimetics, 2017, Volume 2, Issue 3, pages 1-11.

• "High Strength Underwater Bonding with Polymer Mimics of Mussel Adhesive Proteins"
  Michael North, Chelsey A. Del Grosso, Jonathan Wilker*
  ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2017, Volume 9, Issue 8, pages 7866-7872.

• "Integrating Mussel Chemistry into a Bio-Based Polymer to Create Degradable Adhesives"
  Courtney L. Jenkins, Heather M. Siebert, Jonathan Wilker*
  Macromolecules, 2017, Volume 50, Issue 2, pages 561-568.

• "A bioinspired elastin-based protein for a cytocompatible underwater adhesive"
  Jane Brennan, Bridget Kilbride, Jonathan Wilker*, Julie Liu
  Biomaterials,  2017, Volume 124, pages 116-125.

• "Adhesives Inspired by Marine Mussels" 
  Courtney L. Jenkins, Heather J. Meredith, Jonathan Wilker*
  Biomaterials from Nature for Advanced Devices and Therapies, 2016. (ISBN 9781119178071)

• "Managing Redox Chemistry To Deter Marine Biological Adhesion"
  Chelsey A. Del Grosso, Thomas W. McCarthy, Christopher L. Clark, Joshua L. Cloud, Jonathan Wilker*
  ACS Chemistry of Materials, 2016, Volume 28, Issue 18, pages 6791-6796

• "Composition and Structure of Oyster Adhesive Reveals Heterogeneous Properties in a Biological Composite"
  Rebecca A. Metzler, Rebecca Rist, Erik Alberts, Paul Kenny, Jonathan Wilker*
  Advanced Functional Materials, 2016, Volume 26, Issue 37, pages 6814-6821

• "Cytocompatibility Studies of a Biomimetic Copolymer with Simplified Structure and High-strength Adhesion"
  Jane Brennan, Heather Meredith, Courtney Jenkins, Jonathan Wilker, Julie Liu*
  Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, 2016, Volume 104, Issue 4, pages 983-990

• "Positive Charges and Underwater Adhesion"
  Jonathan Wilker*
  Science, 2015, Volume 349, Issue 6248, pages 582-583

• "The Interplay of Modulus, Strength and Ductility in Adhesive Design Using Biomimetic Polymer Chemistry"
  Heather Meredith and Jonathan Wilker*
  Advanced Functional Materials, 2015, Volume 25, Issue 31, pages 5057-5065

• "Structural and Compositional Characterization of the Cement Produced by Reef Building Oysters"
  Erik Alberts, Stephen Taylor, Stephanie Edwards, Debra Sherman, Chia-Ping Huang, Paul Kenny, and Jonathan Wilker*
  ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2015, Volume 7, Issue 16, pages 8533-8538

• Selective Formation of Metastable Ferrihydrite in the Chiton Tooth"
  Lyle Gordon, Jessica Román, R. Michael Everly, Michael Cohen, Jonathan Wilker, Derk Joester*
  Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2014, Volume 53, Issue 43, pages 11506-11509

• "Self-Healing Polymers: Sticky When Wet"
  Jonathan Wilker*
  Nature Materials, 2014, Volume 13, Issue 9, pages 849-850

• "Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopic Studies on Buried Heterogeneous Biointerfaces"
  Chi Zang, Joshua Jasensky, Chaun Leng, Chelsey Del Grosso, Gary Smith, Jonathan Wilker, and Zhan Chen*
  Optics Letters, 2014, Volume 39, Issue 9, pages 2715-2718

• "Enhancing the Adhesion of a Biomimetic Polymer Yields Performance Rivaling Commercial Glues"
  Heather Meredith, Courtney Jenkins, and Jonathan Wilker*
  Advanced Functional Materials, 2014, Volume 24, Issue 21, pages 3259-3267

• "Molecular Weight Effects upon the Adhesive Bonding of a Mussel Mimetic Polymer"
  Courtney Jenkins, Heather Meredith, and Jonathan Wilker*
  ACS Appl. Materials Interfaces, 2013, Volume 5, Issue 11, pages 5091-5096

• "A Review on Tough and Sticky Hydrogels"
  Charles Peak, Jonathan Wilker, and Gudrun Schmidt*
  Colloid Polymer Sci., 2013, Issue 291, pages 2031-2047

• "Interfacial Structure of a DOPA-Inspired Adhesive Polymer Studied by Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy"
  Chuan Leng, Yuwei Liu, Courtney Jenkins, Heather Meredith, Jonathan Wilker*, and Zhan Chen*
  Langmuir, 2013, Volume 29, 6659-6654

• "Combining Biomimetic Principles from the Lotus Leaf and Mussel Adhesive: Polystyrene Films with Superhydrophobic and Adhesive Layers"
  Ana Isabel Neto, Heather Meredith, Courtney Jenkins, Jonathan Wilker, and Joao F. F. Mano*
  RSC Advances, 2013, Volume 3, 9352-9356

• "Robust and Adhesive Hydrogels from Cross-linked Polyethylene Glycol and Silicate for Biomedical Use"
  Chia-Jung Wu, Jonathan J. Wilker, and Gudrun Schmidt*
  Macromolecular Bioscience, 2013, Volume 13, pages 59-66.

• "Ambivalent Adhesives: Combining Biomimetic Cross-Linking With Antiadhesive Oligo(ethylene glycol)"
  Cristina R. Matos-Peréz and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Macromolecules, 2012, Volume 45, pages 6634-6639.

• "Polymer Composition and Substrate Influences on the Adhesive Bonding of a Biomimetic, Cross-Linking Polymer"
  Cristina R. Matos-Peréz, James D. White, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012, Volume 134, pages 9498-9505.

• "Underwater Bonding With Charged Polymer Mimics of Marine Mussel Adhesive Proteins"
  James D. White and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Macromolecules, 2011, Volume 44, pages 5085-5088.

• "Biomaterials: Redox and Adhesion on the Rocks"
  Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Nature Chemical Biology, 2011, Volume 7, Pages 579-580.

• "Biomaterials at the Beach: How Marine Biology Uses Chemistry to Make Materials"
  Book Chapter in "Letters to a Young Chemist"
  Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Edited by Abhik Ghosh
  2011 from Wiley Interscience

• “Highly Extensible Bio-Nanocomposite Fibers”
  Akhilesh K. Gaharwan, Patrick J. Shexnailder, Avinash Dundigalla, James D. White, Cristina R. Matos-Peréz, Joshua L. Cloud, Soenke Seifert, Jonathan J. Wilker*, Gudrun Schmidt*
  Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 2011, Volume 32, Pages 50-47 (Cover Article)

• "Oysters Produce an Organic−Inorganic Adhesive for Intertidal Reef Construction"
  Jeremy R. Burkett, Lauren M. Hight, Paul Kenny and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2010, Volume 132, pages 12531-12533.
  Press related to this article

• "The Iron-Fortified Adhesive System of Marine Mussels"
  Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2010, Volume 49, Issue 44, pages 8076-8078.
  Review Article

• "Piezoelectric Inkjet Printing of Medical Adhesives and Sealants"
  Ryan D. Boehm, Shaun D. Gittard, Jaqueline M.H. Byrne, Anand Doraiswamy, Jonathan J. Wilker*, Timothy M. Dunaway, Rene Crombez, Weidian Shen, Yuan-Shin Lee, Roger J. Narayan*
  JOM Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, 2010, Volume 62, Issue 7, pages 56-60

• "Metal–Bipyridine Complexes in DNA Backbones and Effects on Thermal Stability"
  Mildred M. Rodriguez-Ramos and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2010, Volume 15, pages 629-639.

• "Solution Speciation, Kinetics, and Observing Reaction Intermediates in the Alkylation of Oxidovanadium Compounds"
  Jessica M. Fautch and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Inorganic Chemistry, 2010, Volume 49, pages 4791-4801.

• "Marine Bioinorganic Materials: Mussels Pumping Iron"
  Jonathan J. Wilker
  Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, 2010, Volume 14, Issue 2, pages 276-283 (Cover article)

• "A Method for Measuring the Adhesion Strength of Marine Mussels"
  Jeremy R. Burkett, Jessica L. Wojtas, Joshua L. Cloud, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of Adhesion, 2009, Volume 85, pages 601 - 615.

• "Thin Films of Polymer Mimics of Cross-Linking Mussel Adhesive Proteins Deposited by Matrix Assisted Laser Evaporation"
  Rodica Cristescu*, Tomas Kocourek, Anand Doraiswamy, D. Mihaiescu, Roger Narayan, Ioan Stamatin, Jonathan J. Wilker, Miroslav Jelinek, Ion N. Mihailescu, and Douglas B. Chrisey.
  Applied Surface Science, 2009, Volume 255, pages 5496 - 5498.

• "Bulk Adhesive Strength of Recombinant Mussel Adhesive Protein"
  Hyung Joon Cha*, Dong Soo Hwang, Seonghye Lim, James D. White, Cristina R. Matos-Perez and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Biofouling, 2009, Volume 25, pages 99 - 107

• "Inkjet Printing of Bioadhesives"
  Anand Doraiswamy, Timothy M. Dunaway, Jonathan J. Wilker*, and Roger J. Narayan*
  Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, 2009, Volume 89B, pages 28 - 35

• "Oxidovanadium Complexes for the Consumption of Alkylating Toxins"
  Jessica M. Fautch, Phillip E. Fanwick, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 2009, pages 33 - 37 (Cover article)

• "Thermal Formation of Mixed-Metal Inorganic Complexes at Atmospheric Pressure"
  Wen-Ping Peng, Mike P. Goodwin, Hao Chen, Graham Cooks*, and Jonathan J. Wilker
  Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 2008, Volume 22, pages 3540-3548.

• "Oxidative Iron Species and Ocean Challenges: a Perspective"
  Daniel Rittschof*, Cecilia Bonaventura, Jonathan J. Wilker, and CL Van Dover
  Biofouling, 2008, Volume 24, pages 173-175.

• "Chemical and Biochemical Insights on Preventing Cancer with Vanadium and Selenium"
  Elizabeth E. Hamilton, Jessica M. Fautch, Sarah M. Gentry, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  American Chemical Society Symposium Book Series
  Vanadium: The Versatile Metal
  Volume 974, Chapter 21, pages 269-309, published in 2007.

• "Ligand-Based Backbone Modifications for Metal-Chelating Nucleic Acids"
  Megan M. Knagge and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Chemical Communications, 2007, pages 3356 - 3358. 

• "Simplified Polymer Mimics of Cross-Linking Adhesive Proteins"
  Glenn Westwood, Trinity N. Horton, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Macromolecules, 2007, Volume 40, pages 3960 - 3964.

• "Adhesive Strength and Curing Rate of Marine Mussel Protein Extracts on Porcine Small Intestinal Submucosa (SIS)"
  Lal Ninan, Richard L. Stroshine*, Jonathan J. Wilker*, and Riyi Shi*
  Acta Biomaterialia, 2007, Volume 3, pages 687 - 694.

• "Synergistic Effects of Metals and Oxidants in the Curing of Marine Mussel Adhesive"
  Lauren M. Hight and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of Materials Science, 2007, Volume 42, pages 8934 - 8942.
  Special Issue on Biological Hierarchical Nanomaterials

• "EPR Investigation and Spectral Simulations of Iron-Catecholate Complexes and Iron-Peptide Models of Marine Adhesive Cross-Links"
  Jaime T. Weisser, Mark J. Nilges, Mary J. Sever, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Inorganic Chemistry, 2006, Volume 45, pages 7736-7747.

• "Structural Effects of Crosslinking a Biopolymer Hydrogel Derived from Marine Mussel Adhesive Protein"
  Elena Loizou, Jaime T. Weisser, Gudrun Schmidt*, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Macromolecular Bioscience, 2006, Volume 6, pages 711-718. (Cover Article)

• "Alkylation of Inorganic Oxo Compounds and Insights on Preventing DNA Damage"
  Elizabeth E. Hamilton and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2006, Volume 128, pages 3388-3395.

• "Absorption Spectroscopy and Binding Constants for First-Row Transitions Metal Complexes of a DOPA-Containing Peptide"
  Mary J. Sever and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Dalton Transactions, 2006, Issue 6, pages 813-822.

• "Inorganic Oxo Compounds React with Alkylating Agents: Implications for DNA Damage"
  Elizabeth E. Hamilton and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2004, Volume 43, pages 3290-3292.

• Inhibition of DNA Alkylation Damage with Inorganic Salts"
  Elizabeth E. Hamilton and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 2004, Volume 9, pages 894-902.

• "Metal-Mediated Cross-Linking in the Generation of a Marine Mussel Adhesive"
  Mary J. Sever, Jaime T. Weisser, Jennifer Monahan, Shalini Srinivasan, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2004, Volume 43, pages 447-450.

• "Cross-Linking the Protein Precursor of Marine Mussel Adhesives: Bulk Measurements and Reagents for Curing"
  Jennifer Monahan and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Langmuir, 2004, Volume 20, pages 3724-3729.'

• "Visible Absorption Spectra of Metal-Catecholate and Metal-Tironate Complexes"
  Mary J. Sever and Jonathan Wilker*
  Dalton Transactions, 2004, pages 1061-1072.

• "Rapid Chromatography for Evaluating Adsorption Characteristics of Cellulase Binding Domain Mimetics"
  Nathan S. Mosier, Jonathan J. Wilker, and Michael R. Ladisch*
  Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2004, Volume 86, pages 756-764.

• "Specificity of Metal Ion Cross-Linking in Marine Mussel Adhesives"
  Jennifer Monahan and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Chemical Communications, 2003, pages 1672-1673.

• "Adhesive Strength of Marine Mussel Extracts on Porcine Skin"
  Lal Ninan, Jennifer Monahan, Richard L Stroshine*, Jonathan J Wilker*, and Riyi Shi*
  Biomaterials, 2003, Volume 24, pages 4091-4099.

• "The Elusive Vanadate (V3O9) 3-: Isolation, Crystal Structure, and Nonaqueous Solution Behavior"
  Elizabth E. Hamilton, Philip E. Fanwick, and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2002, Volume 124, pages 78-82.

• "Synthesis of Peptides Containing DOPA (3,4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine)"
  Mary J. Sever and Jonathan J. Wilker*
  Tetrahedron, 2001, Volume 57, pages 6139-6146.