Article
Designing Silk-silk Protein Alloy Materials for Biomedical Applications
Journal of Visualized Experiments
(2014)
Abstract
Fibrous proteins display different sequences and structures that have been used for various applications in biomedical fields such as biosensors, nanomedicine, tissue regeneration, and drug delivery. Designing materials based on the molecular-scale interactions between these proteins will help generate new multifunctional protein alloy biomaterials with tunable properties. Such alloy material systems also provide advantages in comparison to traditional synthetic polymers due to the materials biodegradability, biocompatibility, and tenability in the body. This article used the protein blends of wild tussah silk (Antheraea pernyi) and domestic mulberry silk (Bombyx mori) as an example to provide useful protocols regarding these topics, including how to predict protein-protein interactions by computational methods, how to produce protein alloy solutions, how to verify alloy systems by thermal analysis, and how to fabricate variable alloy materials including optical materials with diffraction gratings, electric materials with circuits coatings, and pharmaceutical materials for drug release and delivery. These methods can provide important information for designing the next generation multifunctional biomaterials based on different protein alloys.
Keywords
- Bioengineering,
- Issue 90,
- protein alloys,
- biomaterials,
- biomedical,
- silk blends,
- computational simulation,
- implantable electronic devices
Disciplines
Publication Date
2014
DOI
10.3791/50891
Citation Information
Xiao Hu, Solomon Duki, Joseph Forys, Jeffrey D. Hettinger, et al.. "Designing Silk-silk Protein Alloy Materials for Biomedical Applications" Journal of Visualized Experiments Iss. 90 (2014) p. e50891 ISSN: 1940-087X Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jeffrey-hettinger/3/