SBIR Phase I: High Performance Ballistics Fibers from Spider's Silk

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将展示生产用于个人防弹装甲的高韧性蜘蛛丝纤维的商业可行性。蜘蛛丝是自然界最引人注目的材料之一，具有高拉伸强度和高延伸性，与普通合成纤维相比具有无与伦比的韧性。此外，它重量轻、透气、柔韧，是防弹衣等防护服的理想材料。以前生产人造蜘蛛丝蛋白的方法都是基于不完整的丝素序列，而以前创造丝绸喷丝板的努力并没有充分复制丝腺内的条件。在这个项目中，将利用基因工程和合成生物学的最新进展来重新设计天然丝蛋白基因，使其能够在重组宿主中表达丝蛋白。这一方法类似于最近的工作，这些工作使可再生资源能够生产化学品和燃料。先进的微流体制造将被用来创造一种复制天然蜘蛛丝腺的喷丝器。这些技术结合在一起，将产生一种可再生、可扩展和“绿色”的方法，生产用于个人防护装甲的下一代高性能纤维。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是利用比目前的防弹纤维更好的材料和更低的价格制造高性能和轻便的防弹衣。美国的防弹衣市场每年价值数亿美元；由于其低初始成本和直接扩大规模，拟议中的产品将能够实现可观的利润率。更坚固、更舒适、更便宜的防弹背心将使警察、士兵、警卫和其他任何面临弹丸伤害的人受益。轻质而坚韧的纤维在许多其他市场都有应用，从纺织品到体育用品。此外，精确控制真丝纤维性能的能力将使人们能够更好地了解蛋白质纤维的组装机制，并能够根据应用要求创造具有机械性能的新型材料。最后，本文提出的研究将使蛋白质材料(特别是丝素材料)的生产变得廉价，用于各种非纤维系统，包括组织工程支架、医疗器械和光学传感器。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate the commercial feasibility of producing high-toughness spider silk fibers for use in personal ballistic armor. Spider silk is one of nature's most remarkable materials, possessing high tensile strength and high extensibility, giving it an unrivaled toughness as compared with common synthetic fibers. In addition, it is lightweight, breathable, and flexible making it an ideal material for use in protective clothing such as body armor. Previous approaches to produce synthetic spider silk proteins have been based on incomplete silk sequences and previous efforts to create a silk spinneret have not sufficiently replicated the conditions inside the silk gland. In this project, the latest advances in genetic engineering and synthetic biology will be used to redesign a natural silk gene to enable expression of silk protein in a recombinant host. This methodology is similar to recent work which enabled the production of chemicals and fuels from renewable sources. Advanced microfluidics manufacturing will be used to create a spinneret that replicates a natural spider's silk gland. Combined, these technologies will result in a reproducible, scalable, and "green" method of manufacturing the next generation of high performance fibers for personal protective armor. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the creation of high-performance and lightweight body armor utilizing a better material at a lower price than current ballistic fibers. The market for body armor in the US is in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually; the proposed product will be able to achieve a significant profit margin due to its low initial costs and straightforward scale-up. Tougher, more comfortable, and cheaper bulletproof vests will benefit police, soldiers, guards, and anyone else who faces harm from projectiles. Lightweight and tough fibers have applications in numerous other markets, ranging from textiles to sporting goods. In addition, the ability to precisely control silk fiber properties will enable better understanding the assembly mechanisms of protein-based fibers and enable the creation of novel materials with mechanical properties tailored to application requirements. Finally, the research proposed herein will enable the inexpensive production of protein materials (specifically, silk materials) for use in a wide variety of non-fibrous systems including tissue engineering scaffolds, medical devices, and optical sensors.