Journal
MACROMOLECULAR BIOSCIENCE
Volume 18, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/mabi.201700295
Keywords
biomaterials; intrinsic fluorescence; microfluidics; native silk fibroin; protein fibers
Funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- Wellcome Trust
- Elan Pharmaceuticals
- UK BBSRC
- Frances and Augustus Newman Foundation
- AFOSR
- EPSRC [EP/K005693/1]
- MRC
- Infinitus China Ltd.
- Harold Perlman Family
- Yad Hanadiv
- Benozio Center for Advancement of Science
- Council for Higher Education-Alon fellowship
- ERC
- BBSRC [BB/H023917/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- EPSRC [EP/H018301/1, EP/K005693/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- MRC [G0902243, MR/K015850/1, MR/K02292X/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Alzheimers Research UK [ARUK-PG2013-14, ARUK-ESG2012-1, ARUK-EG2012A-1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/H023917/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/H018301/1, EP/K005693/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Medical Research Council [MR/K015850/1, MR/K02292X/1, G0902243] Funding Source: researchfish
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Native silk fibroin (NSF) is a unique biomaterial with extraordinary mechanical and biochemical properties. These key characteristics are directly associated with the physical transformation of unstructured, soluble NSF into highly organized nano-and microscale fibrils rich in beta-sheet content. Here, it is shown that this NSF fibrillation process is accompanied by the development of intrinsic fluorescence in the visible range, upon near-UV excitation, a phenomenon that has not been investigated in detail to date. Here, the optical and fluorescence characteristics of NSF fibrils are probed and a route for potential applications in the field of self-assembled optically active biomaterials and systems is explored. In particular, it is demonstrated that NSF can be structured into autofluorescent microcapsules with a controllable level of beta-sheet content and fluorescence properties. Furthermore, a facile and efficient fabrication route that permits arbitrary patterns of NSF microcapsules to be deposited on substrates under ambient conditions is shown. The resulting fluorescent NSF patterns display a high level of photostability. These results demonstrate the potential of using native silk as a new class of biocompatible photonic material.
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