Project SSS
Inspired by the production of insulin, we came up with the idea of producing abundant spider silk in order to utilize such wonderful materials to replace the current materials to enhance the quality of products and promote environmental protection by synthetic biology. In this project, we aim to engineer E.coli BL21 to produce a protein named spidroin, the basic unit of spider silk. Ten different silk genes are planned to be manufactured. Based on our modeling result, we have predicted the concentration of inducers needed to make an ideal spider silk. In the future, the mechanical properties of silk products, like strength, will be adjusted by controlling the proportion of spidroin with different properties by proportional expression. Thus, we hope to obtain spidroin with different properties to cater to different needs, like as a string of musical instruments or as bio-concrete to stabilize the collapsing buildings, hence providing alternative materials for other goods.