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

在研究计划中，第一步是制备基因工程蜘蛛丝蛋白。目前，我们已经设计了6个突变体，并成功地纯化了这些蛋白。一种仿生微流控芯片被制作成模拟自然旋转过程，允许所有触发器按顺序引入通道。它可以灵活地改变条件(如浓度、pH值和负压)，沿通道可以发现完全不同的丝绸形态。用不同的显微镜观察了丝绸沿通道的表面结构。有趣的是，用拉曼和同步辐射的WAXD很好地表征了β-折叠的形成。现在我们正在汇总数据，并准备很快发表这一结果的手稿。

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.