I-Corps: Engineering biodegradable performance fibers for textiles

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是支持开发具有固有颜色和材料性能的可生物降解性能纤维，这些纤维可归因于时尚和纺织工业的蛋白质结构。该产品解决了时尚和纺织行业对石油基合成纤维（聚酯，尼龙，氨纶等）对环境的影响的担忧，作为一种提取原料来源，它们以微塑料的形式存在于环境中。拟议中的纤维制造为传统的纺织品染色和纺织品整理提供了一种有价值的替代方案，前者是第二大水污染来源，后者是环境挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）和人体健康危害的来源。I-Corps项目的基础是开发一个具有所需功能（颜色、拉伸和湿度管理）的工程蛋白质平台，并通过酶交联将它们连接成纺织用纤维。该技术通过酶交联工程蛋白，在大肠杆菌或酵母中表达和扩增。选择或设计以蛋白质为基础的纤维，将所需的纺织特性映射到适合工业纺丝工艺的功能性纤维，薄膜或生物聚合物原料中。这些工程蛋白通过提供纤维固有颜色和拉伸等属性来满足纺织工业的需求。概念验证已经在具有固有颜色和荧光的生物聚合物复合纤维的开发中得到证实。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to support the development of biodegradable performance fibers with inherent color and material performance that can be attributed to protein structure for the fashion and textile industry. This product addresses the fashion and textile industry’s concerns over the environmental impacts of petroleum-based synthetic fibers (polyester, nylon, spandex, etc.) as an extractive raw material source that persists in the environment as microplastics. The proposed fiber manufacturing offers a valuable alternative to conventional textile dyeing, the second largest sources of water pollution, and textile finishing, a source of environmental volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and human health hazards. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a platform for engineering proteins with a desired function (color, stretch, and moisture management) and enzymatically cross-linking them into a fiber for textile applications. The technology enzymatically cross-links engineered proteins that are expressed and amplified in E. Coli or yeast. The protein-based fibers are selected, or designed, to map a desired textile property into a functional fiber, film or biopolymer raw material suitable for industrial spinning processes. These engineered proteins are designed to address the demands of the textile industry by providing attributes such as inherent color and stretch to the fibers. Proof-of-concept has been demonstrated in the development of biopolymer composite fibers with inherent color and fluorescence.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.