Research Area 8: Life Sciences: 8.1 Biochemistry: Revolutionary Properties of Evolutionary Biological Materials
Abstract
The objective of this proposal is to advance the material properties of recombinant squid ring teeth (SRT) developed by the PI by understanding the relationship between protein sequence and structure of SRT mimics and to then examine their material properties. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of how SRT protein sequence affects structure, random libraries of synthetic SRT proteins will be generated where the crystalline region of the SRT will be randomly varied and the number of tandem repeats varied. High throughput analysis of the structural features of 5000 of these variants will be examined using an instrument capable of performing X-ray diffraction of samples contained in 96-well plates. Differential scanning calorimetry will be used to determine the glass transition temperature and melting temperature for a number of select variants and a coarse grain model that predicts melting temperature as a function of amino acid variation will be developed. The mechanical and rheological properties of these materials will be measured as a function of extrusion temperature and humidity.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 12, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1610019
Entities
People
- Melik Demirel
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Pennsylvania State University
- United States Army