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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
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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/PMC1885213/ • http://www.springerlink.com/content/n23g1p106512k447/ • http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/01/0117_020117TVspidermammals.html • http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/295/5554/472?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
Known Humans symbiotic Pre-existing 'probiotics' Bacteria compete to extinction Engineered kill-switches exist Unknown Safety considerations Attack methods other than competition Rate dynamics Targeting and encapsulation Idea: Biotic Antibiotics
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: nearfree
Idea: Tunicate-based lithium refinement Competition: • Current lithium refinement methods • Coal, oil power • Solar, wind power; biodiesel • Evolution
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 Idea: Tunicate-based lithium refinement