SBIR Phase I: Fabrication of Exotic Skin Mimics Using Additive Manufacturing

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响是，通过利用生物技术和添加剂制造的新进展，提供无残忍、安全和可持续的解决方案，以取代动物来源的外来皮革。拟议的项目将证明使用天然成分和合成成分制造稀有皮革作为进一步加工成消费品的前体原材料的可行性。具体地说，将使用先进的添加剂制造平台，设计、配制、生产由本地动物皮肤的化学积木组成的配方，并随后将其制成复合皮革仿制品。如果成功，建议的努力将导致工程复合材料的原型，复制异国情调皮革的美学、物理、机械和性能特性。为传统的异国皮革提供不含动物的、可持续的和环境友好的选择可以产生重大的社会和环境影响，同时打开一个新的市场并支持皮革加工和制革行业的增长。该项目将用模仿异国皮革的本地结构和生化成分的替代品来取代传统的异国皮革；概括异国皮革的机械和物理特性；并能够使用环境友好、可持续和异种燃料技术来制造。作为拟议研究的一部分，两项关键技术挑战将包括以自下而上的方法设计奇异皮革的结构，方法是结合相关的奇异皮革构件；以及采用先进的制造平台来开发异种、可持续和环保的工艺。研究的目标是复制真皮基质中以胶原蛋白为基础的组成部分。真皮基质的胶原纤维主要是由三螺旋形成的多肽亚域形成的，这些亚域可以独立地重建与全长胶原蛋白一样的纤维自组装几何结构。这项拟议的工作将使用胶原蛋白和仿胶原蛋白亚域以及其他基质分子来模拟真皮基质中纤维的分子和超分子自组装，以精确控制皮革组成结构的直径、密度和方向。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to provide cruelty-free, safe and sustainable solutions to replace animal-sourced exotic leathers by leveraging new advances in biotechnology and additive manufacturing. The proposed project will demonstrate the feasibility of employing natural as well as synthetic components for the fabrication of exotic skins as a precursor raw material for further processing into consumer goods. Specifically, formulations composed of chemical building blocks of native animal skin will be designed, formulated, produced, and subsequently fabricated into composite leather mimics using advanced additive manufacturing platforms. If successful, the proposed efforts will lead to prototypes of engineered composite materials that reproduce the aesthetic, physical, mechanical, and performance properties of exotic leathers. Providing animal-free, sustainable, and environmentally friendly options to conventional exotic leathers can have a significant societal and environmental impact, while opening a new market and supporting growth in the leather processing and tanning industry.This project will replace conventional exotic leathers with alternatives that mimic the native structure and biochemical composition of exotic skins; recapitulate the mechanical and physical properties of the exotic leathers; and able to be manufactured using environmentally friendly, sustainable and xenofree technologies. Two critical technical challenges addressed as part of the proposed research will include engineering the architecture of exotic leathers in a bottoms-up approach by combining the relevant building blocks of exotic skins; and employing advanced manufacturing platforms to develop processes that are xenofree, sustainable and environmentally friendly. The research goal is to replicate the constituent collagen-based building blocks of the dermal matrix. Collagen fibrils of the dermal matrix are formed primarily by the triple-helix-forming polypeptide subdomains that can independently recreate the fibrillar self-assembled geometries seen with full-length collagen protein. The proposed work will use collagen and collagen-mimicking subdomains, along with other matrix molecules, to mimic the molecular and supramolecular self-assembly of fibrils in the dermal matrix to precisely control the diameter, density, and orientations of the constituent structures of leather.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.