Protein engineering CAST

Notice that silk fibroin dissolved from Bombyx mori silk fibers can be reformulated into silk fibroin films by casting solutions of silk proteins onto a substrate and allowing the evaporation of the solvent. As-cast films made from aqueous solutions of silk fibroin are mechanically weak and typically unstractured or a-heUx-rich [5, 42]. In tissue engineering studies, in order to modulate the mechanical properties and the rate/extent of degradation, the crystalline state (/3-sheet content) and morphology need to be controlled [8]. 

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