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Soft & Wet Matter Lab
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A lab that learns from the softness of living things to create tough gels.
AboutAbout the lab
Living bodies are made of gels
The Soft & Wet Matter Lab studies "gels," the materials that make up living bodies.
Apart from bones and teeth, living bodies are made of water-rich soft tissue, that is, gels.
By synthesizing functional gels that mimic the structure of biological tissue and examining their properties, the lab tests where the remarkable functions of living things come from.
The resulting gels are also intended for application as materials useful in medicine, starting with artificial cartilage.
Key terms
- Hydrogel
- A soft material made of a network-like polymer that keeps its shape while holding a large amount of water
- Double-network gel
- A gel that resists breaking, made by combining a brittle network with a highly stretchable network
- Soft tissue
- The soft parts of the body other than bones and teeth, such as muscles, tendons, and cartilage
NewsLab news
Online information session held for the entrance exam of the Soft Matter Course, Graduate School of Life Science
Doctoral student's paper wins the IGP 2025 Publications Award
Paper published in Nature selected for Highlights in Nature News & Views
Student named Winner in the Macromolecular category of the Student Research Competition at Pacifichem 2025
Paper on an ultra-strong underwater adhesive designed with machine learning published in Nature
ResearchResearch themes
Taking hints from the soft tissues of living things, the lab synthesizes tough, functional gels. By studying these gels, it seeks to uncover where the outstanding functions of biological tissue come from.
*Illustrative imageGels You Can't Bite Through
Using double-network gels, which combine a brittle network with a highly stretchable network, the lab produces tough materials that do not break even when a truck drives over them or a golf club strikes them.
*Illustrative imageGels That Grow Under Mechanical Load
When a gel is made to take up monomer as "nourishment" and force is applied, new networks form starting from the broken ones, and the gel grows heavier and stronger. The phenomenon resembles muscle training.
*Illustrative imageComposite Gels Tougher Than Metal
By combining hydrogels with different materials such as glass fibers and low-melting-point alloys, the lab creates composite materials whose mechanical strength can be tuned while they remain soft.
*Illustrative imageSelf-Healing Gels That Leave No Scar
By incorporating ionic bonds that re-form after breaking, the lab has synthesized a gel that, even when cut, rejoins as before when the cut surfaces are put together. The gel is also tough and compatible with living tissue.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Soft & Wet Matter Lab consist of faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, collaborative researchers, administrative staff, and technical staff.As of 2025
- ProfessorJianping Gong
- Associate ProfessorTasuku Nakajima
- Project Assistant ProfessorHongguang Liao
- Associate ProfessorTsutomu Indei
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “More windows” Jin from Melbourne, Australia / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Gels You Can't Bite Through: “Hydrogel ( )” National Institute of Standards and Technology / Public domain (cropped)
- Gels That Grow Under Mechanical Load: “Superabsorber Hydrogel KSG 2917 pK” Petra Klawikowski / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Composite Gels Tougher Than Metal: “Composite tube” Sergei Sapozhnikov / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Self-Healing Gels That Leave No Scar: “Picture of peptide hydrogel formation shown by the inverted vial method” Hutchinson Jessica / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (融合ソフトマター研究室): “Hydrogels” Azizbekpm / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (ソフトマター構造物性学研究室): “Hidrogela egoera solidoan” Lialore / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (植物免疫研究室): “Downy Mildew on 'Valiant' cultivar (Vitis vinifera x Vitis labrusca x Vitis riparia)” David S. Jones, Patricia McManus / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Yoshida Lab
（吉田研究室） ): “Docosahexaenoic-acid-3D-sf” Ben Mills / Public domain (cropped)
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