To Investigate the Assembly Mechanism of Recombinant Spider Dragline Silk Proteins through In-situ Crystallization in a Biomimetic Microfluidic Chip

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In the research plan, the first step is to prepare the genetically engineered spider silk proteins. Currently, we have designed six mutants and successfully purified these proteins. A biomimetic microfluidic chip was made to mimic the natural spinning process, allowing the introduction of all triggers to the channel in order. It is flexible to change the conditions (such as concentration, pH and negative pressure) and totally different silk morphologies can be found along the channel. Various microscopes were used to observe the surface structure of silk morphologies along the channel. Interestingly, the beta-sheet formation was well characterized by Raman and synchrotron radiated WAXD. Now we are summarizing the data and preparing the manuscript to publish this result soon.