eprintid: 10197406 rev_number: 6 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/19/74/06 datestamp: 2024-09-25 08:36:19 lastmod: 2024-09-25 08:36:19 status_changed: 2024-09-25 08:36:19 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Shire, Ebony creators_name: Coimbra, André AB creators_name: Barba Ostria, Carlos creators_name: Rios-Solis, Leonardo creators_name: López Barreiro, Diego title: Molecular design of protein-based materials – state of the art, opportunities and challenges at the interface between materials engineering and synthetic biology ispublished: inpress divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: F43 note: © Royal Society of Chemistry 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). abstract: Structural proteins like silk, squid ring teeth, elastin, collagen, or resilin, among others, are inspiring the development of new sustainable biopolymeric materials for applications including healthcare, food, soft robotics, or textiles. Furthermore, advances in the fields of soft materials and synthetic biology have a joint great potential to guide the design of novel structural proteins, despite both fields progressing mostly in a separate fashion so far. Using recombinant DNA technologies and microbial fermentations, we can design new structural proteins with monomer-level sequence control and a dispersity of ca. 1.0, based on permutations of tandem repeats derived from natural structural proteins. However, the molecular design of recombinant and repetitive structural proteins is a nontrivial task that is generally approached using low-throughput trial-and-error experimentation. Here, we review recent progress in this area, in terms of structure–function relationships and DNA synthesis technologies. We also discuss experimental and computational advances towards the establishment of rapid prototyping pipelines for this family of biopolymers. Finally, we highlight future challenges to make protein-based materials a commercially viable alternative to current fossil-based polymers. date: 2024-09-19 date_type: published publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d4me00122b oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 2314649 doi: 10.1039/d4me00122b lyricists_name: Lopez Barreiro, Diego lyricists_id: DLOPE24 actors_name: Lopez Barreiro, Diego actors_id: DLOPE24 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Molecular Systems Design & Engineering citation: Shire, Ebony; Coimbra, André AB; Barba Ostria, Carlos; Rios-Solis, Leonardo; López Barreiro, Diego; (2024) Molecular design of protein-based materials – state of the art, opportunities and challenges at the interface between materials engineering and synthetic biology. Molecular Systems Design & Engineering 10.1039/d4me00122b <https://doi.org/10.1039/d4me00122b>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197406/1/D4ME00122B.pdf