Nanofabulous Seminar: Engineering, processing & applications of structural proteins: The tale of spider silk
Proteins reflect one fascinating class of natural polymers with huge potential for technical as well as biomedical applications. One well-known example is spider silk, a protein fiber with excellent mechanical properties such as strength and toughness.
During 400 million years of evolution spiders became outstanding silk producers. Most spider silks are used for building the web, which reflects an optimized trap for flying prey. We have developed biotechnological methods using bacteria as production hosts, which produce structural proteins mimicking the natural ones. Besides the recombinant protein fabrication, we analyzed the natural assembly processes and we have developed spinning techniques to produce protein threads closely resembling natural silk fibers. Importantly, we can employ the bio-inspired proteins also in other application forms such as hydrogels, particles, non-woven mats, foams or films, and we have been able to use spider silk proteins as novel bioinks for biofabrication. Our bio-inspired approach serves as a basis for new materials in a variety of medical, biological, or technical applications.
Prof Thomas Scheibel
Lehrstuhl Biomaterialien, Universität Bayreuth
Bayreuth, Germany
4:00pm, 12/10/2023
Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication
151 Wellington Road, Clayton, 3168
Zoom link: click here
Meeting ID: 834 1963 7873 and passcode: 428084
