Journal of Nanomedicine & Biotherapeutic Discovery
Open Access

Ultrabithorax-based Materials

Joint Event on 30^th Annual Congress on Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials & 8^th World Congress on Spectroscopy and Analytical Techniques

September 10 - 11, 2018 I Stockholm, Sweden

Kenith Meissner

Swansea University, UK

Keynote: J Nanomedine Biotherapeutic Discov

Abstract :

Ultrabithorax (Ubx) is a Drosophila melanogaster transcription factor protein the the Bondos group discovered has the ability to form ordered materials in vitro. Ubx monomers are produced in E.coli and, following purification, are suspended in a buffer solution and where they do not aggregate in the volume of the solution when refrigerated. When allowed to rest at room temperature, the monomer self assembles at the air/water interface through nucleation, fibril formation and, eventually, film integration. The the self assembled film can then be pulled into a fibre with diameters in the range of 2�??50 μm or lifted off as a film with microscale thickness. These materials are highly elastic and maintain physical properties through cycles of drying and re-hydrating. Novel functions can be directly incorporated into Ubx-based materials via gene fusion to produce chimeric polypeptides capable of both self-assembly and the desired chemical reactivity. Unlike most protein-based materials, the gentle conditions under which Ubx self-assembles enable incorporation of active heterologous proteins. This talk will review recent work on the continued development of this unique materials system including mechanical properties enabled by dityrosine bonding between monomers, dynamics of surface film assembly, and advances in Ubxbased materials production.

Biography :

Kenith Meissner received his PhD from the University of Arizona, Optical Sciences Center in the area of ultrafast spectroscopy and semiconductor physics. He then served as a Postdoctoral Appointee at Sandia Naitonal Labs. After spending 7 years in industry developing noninvasive blood gluscose technology, Prof. Meissner returned to academia with positions at Virginia Tech (USA), Texsas A&M University (USA) and Swansea University (UK). His research focuses on biomedical optics and micro-/nano-materials.

E-mail: k.meissner@swansea.ac.uk