Anne Ladegaard Skov gets ideas all the time. So many, in fact, that she sometimes has to hold them back. The ideas relate to her research into silicone-based elastomers, which are used to produce so-called artificial muscles that mimic the way our muscles work.
This has contributed to creating new biodegradable silicone materials and a wide range of products with different properties, such as soft, human-like robots, eye implants, artificial skin, and giant installations that harvest wave energy. Most recently, she has started developing artificial muscles made of silicone and spider silk, which are produced in laboratories via fermentation. These are all technologies that help create a more sustainable world and technology that benefits people.
The inventions have made Professor, Dr.Techn. Anne Ladegaard Skov from DTU Chemical Engineering one of the world’s leading researchers into artificial muscles. Thursday 10 November, she will receive the 2022 Grundfos Prize for her socially transformative applied research. With the prize comes DKK 1 million, of which DKK 750,000 goes to research in the field. The rest goes to Anne Ladegaard Skov personally.
“The recognition means a lot, both personally and professionally. It’s also a big pat on the back for me and the work of my students and staff over the years. It motivates me to keep working on turning my crazy ideas into real products that can benefit people,” says Anne Ladegaard Skov.
Energizing challenges
When she encounters challenges that need to be tackled, she’s energized. As a child, she enjoyed repairing and fixing things. She was extremely curious, interested in science, and loved maths. She spent her spare time riding horses and reading book after book.
Her original dream was to become a veterinarian. But when she developed allergies, she had to change course. When she started high school, she became fascinated by the scientific community. After a stay in Moscow, where she took part in the International Chemistry Olympiad, she realized that she wanted to work with chemistry and physics. The trip was a turning point that showed her just how much science has yet to explore.
She chose to study at DTU, where there are good opportunities for student exchanges, and in the following years, she completed her bachelor’s degree with an exchange stay in Australia and wrote her master’s thesis in Italy. Her research career began with a PhD in mathematical modelling of silicone materials at DTU with a research stay in England.
Recycling waste
Today, Anne Ladegaard Skov researches dielectric elastomers, also known as artificial muscles. These could be described as rubber bands that move when exposed to an electrical voltage. In this way, they can be stretched up to several hundred percent, after which they can return to their original shape. This means they can be used in virtually any context where mechanical movement is part of a technology, e.g. in pumps, valves, robots, generators, and sensors
In her research, she focuses on reusing silicone elastomers, which are lightweight and easy to design, with short process times and low energy consumption. And they can repair themselves. It also means that waste can be recycled.
“Dielectric elastomers are an interesting technology that can be used both for artificial muscles and to extract energy from ocean waves. You can compare dielectric elastomers to clingfilm, except that they’re elastic. When we energize the material, we convert electrical energy into mechanical movement. This is what we call artificial muscles. But we can also take the movement and turn that into electrical energy,” says Anne Ladegaard Skov.
Helps the heart beat
When asked about the next stage in her career, she mentions a large Danfoss project where she developed dielectric elastomers for valves in thermostats. At that time, however, the technology was in its infancy, and it was hard to sell the product on the market. At the same time, European scientists had to give up commercializing similar products. As did Danfoss.
The collaboration ended. But even though Anne Ladegaard Skov doubted whether the technology would ever produce results, she took up the challenge and continued the research without the company. It turned out that one of the materials that was meant to have been used for valves could be used in a new way for transdermal medication patches. This opened up a new avenue for health technology.
Anne Ladegaard Skov established the company Glysious, which produces silicone-based patches that can release active substances to skin and wounds. At the same time, she started developing artificial muscles to help weak hearts beat. Currently, she’s working on softening the artificial muscles to the point where they have the same structure as human tissue.
“I envisage us being able to develop a kind of sleeve that you can put around the heart to give it ‘power’ to beat. For example, it could be used for patients with hearts that don’t beat as hard anymore or for elderly people with reduced strength. But you can also use the artificial muscles in other devices, for example to maintain the rolling movements of the intestines to help digestion. This is often a major problem for the elderly,” says Anne Ladegaard Skov.
A shirt that gives extra strength
Most recently, she has received DKK 48 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s ambitious Challenge Programme to develop artificial muscles from silicone and spider silk. The goal is to use nature’s building blocks to make electrodes with long strands of spider silk and explore how to spin them together using different weaving techniques.
Together with researchers from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the University of Boston, she will now develop an ‘active’ shirt where the artificial muscles are located on the outside of the body. When the shirt contracts, it gives users 5-10 kg of extra lifting power. It could for example help people with reduced mobility, such as elderly or disabled people, to lift heavy items such as a shopping basket.
Her extensive knowledge of the properties of silicone materials has given rise to a number of new applications and commercial opportunities with global reach. This is not least due to the fact that she collaborates with leading research groups from, among others, Harvard University and MIT, as well as international companies that use some of her inventions to design materials.
Her next project will involve using the grant from Grundfos to test a wild idea of developing implants that are injected into the body and programmed to take a specific shape after the injection. This could potentially reduce current complications associated with ejecting the implant from the body:
“The common denominator of my projects is probably that they solve many different societal challenges such as reducing energy consumption and finding solutions to the climate crisis. But it always gives me extra joy when they add quality of life to the more vulnerable groups in society.”
