Adhesion is a ubiquitous phenomenon, which can be found in the plant as well as animal kingdom. The organisms are remarkable in their ability to develop highly complex and effective bonding systems.

These adhesives are unusual in that they can function over wide temperature ranges and in different environments. Within a few seconds the organisms form permanent or temporary bonds to all sorts of substrates with often complex surface coatings.

These systems vary widely in structure and capability, and often perform in ways that differ greatly from conventional man-made adhesives.

The diversity of biological adhesive systems and structures is therefore huge, but nevertheless based mostly on two principles:

1. Attachment is either achieved physically, i.e. by van-der-Waals-forces as seen in gecko, or by reduced-pressure systems (among the best known are the suckerfishes and cephalopod suckers).

2. In contrast many plants and numerous invertebrates as well as vertebrates produce chemical adhesives that allow them to strongly adhere, permanently or temporarily, on substrata or on other organisms

Within our research group at the University of Vienna, Cell Imaging and Ultrastructure we focus on several organism (cephalopods, salamander, ctenophores and ivy) and characterize their glandular systems and adhesion mechanism.