Dynamic materials based on bioengineered fibrous proteins
Abstract
The goal is to generate new dynamic and responsive biomaterials, exploiting designs from nature while morphing them towards non-natural systems. New dynamic materials, wherein input signals from environmental stimuli or biomolecular recognition (e.g., pH, chemical, optical, electrical, mechanical) drive biomolecular regulation towards a dynamic material response. Our goal is to utilize new and efficient strategies to generate functional biomaterials that are dynamically responsive to specific biomolecular recognition events. By utilizing a bioengineering approach, the sequence, assembly, chemistry and thus material functions can be tailored and better controlled, and new materials that do not exist in nature can be designed de novo based on sequence-structure-function relationships. The hypothesis is that bioengineered fibrous proteins with stimuli-responsive chemistries can be used towards a new generation of dynamic, responsive and robust materials. By combining elastin sequence domains with selective chemistry, or post translational chemistries, with a built in set of cross-linking options (e.g., silk patches for physical assembly into stable beta sheets, tyrosines for enzymatic crosslinking), a series of dynamic hydrogels can be generated to study structure, morphology and mechanical features in response to on-off signals (e.g., pH, chemical, optical, electrical, mechanical). When this approach is also coupled to high through-put screening strategies focused on functional material outcomes, a new avenue for materials discovery with improved utility and outcomes can be expected. We will approach the above goal by using three domains: domain 1 will consist of a silk protein sequence to serve as a physical crosslinker to stabilize the protein hydrogels, domain 2 will consist of an elastin domain with variants to modulate chemistry for dynamic responses as well as for selective sites for coupling chemistry, and domain 3 will be specific peptide sequences or functional domains, such as for targeted receptor binding, chemistry grafting or for cell adhesion. We have organized the research plans into two Phases: Phase I: Tasks 1 and 2 form the core of the project and will focus on genetic designs and protein expression in Task 1, and materials characterization towards targeted biomolecular recognition events in Task 2. In Phase II: Task 3 will focus on design and implementation of rapid screening tools to permit higher throughput of libraries in order to expand utility of the approaches used in Tasks 1 and 2.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 07, 2018
- Source ID
- W911NF1710384
Entities
People
- David L. Kaplan
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Tufts University
- United States Army