Breaking the Yield Bottleneck of Fibrous Squid Protein
Abstract
Motifs from structural proteins such as silk, elastin, collagen, keratin, resilin, and recently Squid RingTooth (SRT) protein, have been used to create multifunctional biomaterials for diverse applications. The beak and SRT have attracted the interest of materials engineers due to their unique composite structure and extreme toughness. In particular,SRT are composed of a highly stiff, naturally occurring biomaterial with an elastic modulus (E) in the range of a 4-8GPa. We are exploring both native and recombinant SRT proteins and their biosynthetic variants in order to fabricate materials with tunable properties such as extensibility, stiffness, tensile strength, toughness, conductivity,optical transparency and self-healing abilities. These materials are highly desirable for wound dressing, electronic devices, adhesives, optics, sensors and many more high-tech applications. As a potential biomaterial with unusual properties, new methods must be developed for the cost-effective production and purification of these materials in order to make then accessible for potential military and civilian applications. In particular, since SRT is made up of long and highly specific chains of amino acids, it will require recombinant DNA expression and purification from a tractable host cell in order to be produced. To achieve this overall objective, we are focusing on the recombinant production of SRT with a purification process based on highly scalable and inexpensive liquid extraction methods.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1187807
Entities
People
- David W Wood
- Tarek Hassanin
Organizations
- Ohio State University