Team:Utah State

Spider silk is the strongest known biomaterial, with a large variety of potential applications. These potential applications include artificial tendons and ligaments, biomedical sutures, athletic gear, parachute cords, air bags, and other yet discovered products which require a high tensile strength with amazing extendability. Spiders, however, cannot be farmed because they are territorial and cannibalistic. Thus, an alternative to producing spider silk must be found. We aim to engineer spider silk genes into E. coli to produce this highly valuable product. Spider silk production in bacteria has been limited due to the highly repetitive nature of the amino acids in the spider silk protein. To overcome this obstacle, we are using various synthetic biology techniques to boost spider silk protein production and increase cellular fitness. After successful production, spider silk protein is artificially spun into usable fibers and tested for mechanical and physical properties.

• First ever spider silk BioBrick parts
• First spun spider silk fiber from composite BioBrick part
• Improved His-tag for better protein purification
• First spider silk GFP fusion protein from BioBrick parts