From Silk to Sealant: The Production of an Enhanced Biomedical Silk Glue Biopolymer from Genetically Engineered Silkworms

Advancements in post-surgical healing are a major topic in biomedical science and require innovations in materials science.

In many medical procedures, current medical glues are more efficient than traditional sutures but they still lack sufficient wet-tolerant adhesive strength.

Biopolymers are naturally derived and biocompatible, and present enormous potential for applications such as tissue glue.

To address the adhesive challenge, we propose GEMSilk, an innovative and interdisciplinary framework integrating analytical techniques of material science with genetically engineered silk glue.

Our key objective is to develop a caddisfly-derived and inherently wet-tolerant aquatic silk glue recombinant protein expression system in the domestic silkworm (Bombyx mori).

Utilising CRISPR/Cas9, caddisfly aquatic silk glue DNA motifs will be inserted into the silkworm's silk gene, the resulting stable mutant lines will produce commercial quantities of wet-tolerant silk glue.

By training through research and a secondment at the lab of supervisor Seib’s collaborator, I will gain essential, state-of-the-art skills in novel silk biopolymer design and silk analysis.

Moreover, the silk glue product will undergo intellectual property evaluations with Seib, further augmenting my professional skill set with this essential process and the potentials beyond GEMSilk will also be assessed.During GEMSilk, I will gain substantial and rigorous training in silk analysis and essential assays for silks based healthcare.

I will be located at Fraunhofer-IME's new world-class multi-disciplinary applied insect biotechnology research institute. Over the past months, Seib and I have honed GEMSilk.

Combining Seib’s profound experience in silk analysis for healthcare with my skills in silkworm genetic engineering, not only promises to elevate my career through advanced training and project management but also to develop a game-changing silk-based product for biomedical applications.