Transcript Biofab_(2)
Three Will Ben Jose Alvin Refined Spidersilk Synthesis New high tensile material enabling novel structures and invention Significance and Uses • The suggested form was dragline silk • 5 times stronger than steel by weight • Uses would include cables, sutures, ligament replacements, bulletproof vests, Competitors • • • • • • Recombinant silkworms (2) BioSteel (recombinant goats) (1) Recombinant salmonella Kelvar Normal Steel Forcible and Natural Silk harvesting Knowns • Comprised of 2 proteins, coded for by genes MaSdI and MaSdII or ADF-3 and ADF-4 (1) • Difficulties in cloning entire genes because of large repeating sequences, so recombinant are usually shortened versions (3) • Also, really large proteins (200-350 kD), which make secretion difficult (1) • There is a process for wet-spinning the recombinant silk (4) • Biological Structure of a spider's spinneret (1) Unknowns • How to deal successfully with and isolate the entirety of ADF-3, even with large repeating sequences • How to get a cell to secrete a protein that is 200+ kD • Easy purification of silk proteins • Finer spinning process Sources • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC188 5213/ • http://www.springerlink.com/content/n23g1p1065 12k447/ • http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/0 1/0117_020117TVspidermammals.html • http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/295/55 54/472? ijkey=hq9P3a.MOxB5w&keytype=ref&siteid=sci Idea: Biotic Antibiotics • Current antibiotics very broad-spectrum • Increasing occurrence of antibiotic resistance • Supply of medication to third world • Inability of immune system to evolve rapidly Idea: Biotic Antibiotics • Biological solution to biological problem • Potential for great specificity • Not susceptible to resistant strains • Marginal cost zero • Augmentation to human immune system Idea: Biotic Antibiotics Competition: • Existing medical treatments (antibiotics) • Social resistance • Human Immune System • Evolution Idea: Biotic Antibiotics Known • Humans symbiotic • Pre-existing 'probiotics' • Bacteria compete to extinction • Engineered kill-switches exist Unknown • S afety considerations • Attack methods other than competition • Rate dynamics • Targeting and encapsulation Idea: Tunicate-based lithium refinement • Half the world's accessible lithium in Bolivia: 5.4M tons • Modern batteries entirely lithium-based • Energy crunch • Global warming Idea: Tunicate-based lithium refinement • Seawater: 230 billion tons of lithium • Tunicates concentrate Li and V up to 1M x • Biological power generation • Metal refining: near free Idea: Tunicate-based lithium refinement Competition: • Current lithium refinement methods • Coal, oil power • Solar, wind power; biodiesel • Evolution Idea: Tunicate-based lithium refinement Known • Tunicates can do it • How to knock out a gene • How material purification works Unknown • Best implementation of gene • Specific pathway tunicates use • Controls for and constraints on system