Class
Article
Department
Biology
Faculty Mentor
Randy Lewis
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
Spider silk is stronger than Kevlar and more elastic than nylon. These characteristics have led scientists to attempt mass production and world renowned research of the strongest fiber on earth and one of the strongest materials known to man. Only recently has spider silk been artificially produced in large enough quantities to branch out to its endless possibilities. Utah State University's USTAR program has used transgenic goats to produce spider silk protein within their milk. Once these proteins are extracted from the goat's milk it can be restructured in to fibers, adhesives, hydrogels, and coatings. Spider silk has opened the potential for aqueous bases protein materials. Spider silk has been dissolved in aqueous solutions and hydrogels, lyogels, and sponges have been produced. With an aqueous based solution we have determined each of these materials to be biocompatible through immortalized cell culture. This opens a broad range of biomedical uses for each of these materials. We determined the mechanical strength, structural stability, diffusion rate, and drug release effectiveness of these materials. Hydrogels are a gelatinous material composes of mostly water. Their molecular rearrangement can be altered with the incorporation of different post treatments. Lyogels are lyophilized hydrogels that are composed of mostly air and spider silk protein. Sponges are the result of hydrogels that have been frozen in water then allowed to thaw. The properties of the hydrogels, lyogels, and sponges have been characterized by mechanical testing, FTIR, UV spectrometry, and SEM. Through testing and exploration hydrogels have been loaded with antibiotics and much has been learned about the rates of drug release and diffusion through the gels. Although the research on sponges is very new, great strides have been made in showing that they have potential in the biomedical industry especially with their ability to be completely dehydrated then rehydrated again. These different materials can potentially be applied to many different healing applications. The structure and capability of hydrogels, lyogels, and sponges to withstand compression have been studied for all materials. Though each material is related and similar they all have vastly different mechanical properties that give each material distinct properties and capabilities to achieve different tasks.
Start Date
4-9-2015 10:30 AM
Spider Silk- Hydrogels, Lyogels, Sponges
Spider silk is stronger than Kevlar and more elastic than nylon. These characteristics have led scientists to attempt mass production and world renowned research of the strongest fiber on earth and one of the strongest materials known to man. Only recently has spider silk been artificially produced in large enough quantities to branch out to its endless possibilities. Utah State University's USTAR program has used transgenic goats to produce spider silk protein within their milk. Once these proteins are extracted from the goat's milk it can be restructured in to fibers, adhesives, hydrogels, and coatings. Spider silk has opened the potential for aqueous bases protein materials. Spider silk has been dissolved in aqueous solutions and hydrogels, lyogels, and sponges have been produced. With an aqueous based solution we have determined each of these materials to be biocompatible through immortalized cell culture. This opens a broad range of biomedical uses for each of these materials. We determined the mechanical strength, structural stability, diffusion rate, and drug release effectiveness of these materials. Hydrogels are a gelatinous material composes of mostly water. Their molecular rearrangement can be altered with the incorporation of different post treatments. Lyogels are lyophilized hydrogels that are composed of mostly air and spider silk protein. Sponges are the result of hydrogels that have been frozen in water then allowed to thaw. The properties of the hydrogels, lyogels, and sponges have been characterized by mechanical testing, FTIR, UV spectrometry, and SEM. Through testing and exploration hydrogels have been loaded with antibiotics and much has been learned about the rates of drug release and diffusion through the gels. Although the research on sponges is very new, great strides have been made in showing that they have potential in the biomedical industry especially with their ability to be completely dehydrated then rehydrated again. These different materials can potentially be applied to many different healing applications. The structure and capability of hydrogels, lyogels, and sponges to withstand compression have been studied for all materials. Though each material is related and similar they all have vastly different mechanical properties that give each material distinct properties and capabilities to achieve different tasks.