Posted January 26, 2017

 

By Seshadri Ramkumar

 

LUBBOCK, Texas – An interdisciplinary work has resulted in functionalized artificial, antibiotic spider silk using E. coli bacteria.

 

Scientists at the United Kingdom-based Nottingham University have utilized a concept called “click chemistry” to synthesize antibiotic spider silk. Prof. Neil Thomas of the School of Chemistry collaborated with life scientist Dr. Sara Goodacre and her team in the research. Recombinant silk fibers functionalized with levofloxacin were able to retain its antibacterial activity by slow release for up to five days after functionalization.

 

According to Prof. Thomas, the biocompatible fibers can find applications in tissue engineering and biomedicine. The structure serves as scaffolds for cell growth and provides antimicrobial properties due to the presence of antibacterial agents, by slow release mechanism.

 

A chance meeting between chemist and scientists from SpiderLab resulted in antibiotic recombinant silk fibers, using “click reaction” technique. The work involved the synthesis of silk protein in a bacterium, where an amino acid not found in protein was added. This amino acid has an azide group, which helps with the click reaction resulting in the functionalized artificial silk.

 

The research was funded by the United Kingdom’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and has appeared in a recent issue of the online journal Advanced Materials.

 

Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar, Ph.D, FTA (honorary), is a professor at the Nonwovens & Advanced Materials Laboratory at Texas Tech.