Biomimetic Manufacturing of Fibers

Our research program is de facto divided into two thrusts. In the molecular biology work, we have utilized published sequences of spidroin 1 and 2 genes to construct oligonucleotides which have been linked together to build repetitive gene units for protein expression studies. The structure of the protein we are using as a model is, of course, that of spider silk, in particular, the silk used for dragline. The other major effort is the design of a spinning system that is modeled after the clearly successful activities of spiders. In order better to understand the design criteria for a protein spinning system, a study of spider biology was undertaken, guided by the vision of a system constructed of flexible, intelligent materials. Construction of Synthetic Spider Silk Genes Production of β sheet proteins We have utilized published sequences of spidroin 1 and 2 genes to construct oligonucleotides which have been linked together to build repetitive gene units for protein expression studies (Figure 1). We are currently linking these initial repetitive units to build genes encoding longer homopolymer and heteropolymer repeats.