I-Corps: Engineering biodegradable performance fibers for textiles

该I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是支持开发可生物降解的高性能纤维，其固有颜色和材料性能可归因于时装和纺织行业的蛋白质结构。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）对环境影响的担忧。作为一种提取原料来源，作为微塑料存在于环境中。拟议的纤维制造提供了一个有价值的替代传统的纺织品染色，水污染的第二大来源，纺织品整理，环境挥发性有机化合物（VOC）和人类健康危害的来源。这个I-Corps项目的基础是开发一个平台，用于设计具有所需功能（颜色，拉伸和水分管理）的蛋白质，并将其酶促交联成用于纺织应用的纤维。该技术酶促交联工程蛋白质，这些蛋白质在大肠杆菌中表达和扩增。大肠杆菌或酵母菌。 选择或设计基于蛋白质的纤维以将所需的纺织品性质映射到适用于工业纺丝工艺的功能性纤维、膜或生物聚合物原材料中。这些工程蛋白质旨在通过为纤维提供固有颜色和拉伸等属性来满足纺织行业的需求。该奖项反映了NSF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.