From the bee's knees to biotechnology: Resilin-based hydrogels for cell-culture and bioprinting

水凝胶是细胞培养和组织工程中最有前途的材料。虽然水凝胶的生物相容性和可降解性对细胞培养至关重要，但其力学性能对细胞分化有重要影响。因此，具有良好控制和可定制机械性能的水凝胶体系受到高度追捧。目前的项目将研究在水凝胶制造中使用弹性蛋白作为细胞生长的环境，最终目标是组织工程。弹性蛋白具有显著的性能（作为弹性体，它实际上是蜜蜂的膝盖），这有助于引入广泛的机械性能以及交联化学，例如在可见光下通过氮化碳。此外，该项目将利用模块化方法向水凝胶中引入更多功能，以促进细胞生长。总的来说，该项目将产生新的强大的“可调”凝胶，这将解决现有细胞培养基的许多缺点，并将在研究中代表动物来源材料的现实替代品。

Hydrogels belong to the most promising materials for cell-culture and tissue engineering. While biocompatibility and degradability of hydrogels are vital for use in cell-culture, mechanical properties have a significant impact on the cell differentiation. Therefore, hydrogel systems with well-controlled and tailorable mechanical properties are highly sought after. The present project will investigate the use of resilin in hydrogel fabrication as an environment for cell-growth with the ultimate goal of tissue engineering. Resilin has remarkable properties (as an elastomer it is literally the bee's knees), which facilitates the introduction of a broad range of mechanical properties together with crosslinking chemistry, e.g. via carbon nitride in the visible light. Moreover, the project will make use of a modular approach to introduce further functions into the hydrogels in order to enhance cell-growth. Overall, the project will give rise to new robust 'tuneable' gels that will address many of the shortcomings of existing cell culture media and will represent realistic alternatives to animal derived materials in research.