SpiderMAEN: Recombinant Spider Silk-based Hybrid Materials for Advanced Energy Technology

这里提出的项目重点是基于蜘蛛丝的重组蛋白的合成。具体地，已知与无机材料如二氧化钛、银和金结合的肽序列将被掺入蜘蛛丝中。静电纺丝将产生用作所述无机物矿化的模板/基质的纤维和纤维垫。该项目的主要目标包括：重组蜘蛛丝及其纤维的合成和表征，矿化和矿化控制与丝的组成，结构，反应条件的评价。丝/TiO 2/Ag和丝/TiO 2/Au杂化材料是由多个组分组成的其它复杂杂化材料的模型系统，其中功能性取决于各个构建块的特定排列。最后，我们将研究最终的混合材料的光催化活性作为测试反应，用于实际上从重组模板上的两种无机材料的受控生长产生功能特性。因此，该项目将重组蛋白技术与功能材料研究联系起来。特别感兴趣的问题是，蛋白质中的遗传编码信息是否可以用于产生复杂的三组分功能材料，以及是否可以使用基因工程将功能杂交材料的最终性质和结构事先编程到相应的基因中，甚至在蛋白质合成之前。

The project proposed here focuses on the synthesis of recombinant proteins based on spider silk. Specifically, peptide sequences known to bind to inorganic materials such as titania, silver, and gold shall be incorporated into the spider silk. Electrospinning will yield fibers and fiber mats to be used as templates / matrices for mineralization of the said inorganics. The main goals of the project include: synthesis and characterization of the recombinant spider silks and the fibers obtained thereof, evaluation of the mineralization and mineralization control vs. silk composition, structure, reaction conditions. The silk/TiO2/Ag and silk/TiO2/Au hybrid materials are model systems for other complex hybrid materials consisting of multiple components where the functionality depends on the specific arrangements of individual building blocks. Finally, we will investigate the photocatalytic activity of the final hybrid materials as a test reaction for actually generating a functional property from the controlled growth of two inorganic materials on the recombinant templates. The project therefore bridges recombinant protein technology and functional materials research. The question of special interest is whether genetically encoded information in a protein can be used for the generation of complex three-component functional materials and whether it is possible to use genetic engineering to a priori program the final properties and structure of a functional hybrid material into the respective gene(s) even before protein synthesis.