Fibrous protein fusion and use thereof in the formation of advanced organic/inorganic composite materials

摘要

The claimed invention provides a fusion polypeptide comprising a fibrous protein domain and a mineralization domain. The fusion is used to form an organic-inorganic composite. These organic-inorganic composites can be constructed from the nano- to the macro-scale depending on the size of the fibrous protein fusion domain used. In one embodiment, the composites can also be loaded with other compounds (e.g., dyes, drugs, enzymes) depending on the goal for the materials, to further enhance function. This can be achieved during assembly of the material or during the mineralization step in materials formation.

主权项

1. An organic-inorganic composite material comprising: (i) a fusion polypeptide comprising a fibrous protein domain comprising the amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1 or 3 and a mineralizing domain, wherein the mineralizing domain is capable of inducing mineralization, and is obtained from dentin matrix protein 1 (DMP1), bone sialoprotein (BSP), silaffin-1 (Sil1) protein, or functional fragments thereof; and (ii) an inorganic material.