Manufacture of complex protein polymers for industry and medicine

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Modern biomedical science and clinical medicine rely increasingly upon the growth of cells outside of the body. In this way we can perform animal free experiments which are highly informative about a range of diseases including cancer, arthritis and dementia. We can also use these artificial cell cultures to make new drugs and there is a growing industry making such drugs as Herceptin for cancer and vaccines against hepatitis. Finally we now have the hope of stem cells to create a range of regenerative medicine cures for a range of conditions. In all these cases the cells are growing outside of the body and often require an external scaffolding of molecules to support their normal growth patterns. Currently these scaffolds are every expensive and of limited technical complexity. This project will create a cheap, pure and highly flexible source of polymeric proteins which can be built into a range of products to accelerate and stabilise the growth of cells in culture and assist all the technologies mentioned above.