We have experimentally demonstrated an on-chip all-silk fibroin whispering gallery mode microresonator by using a simple molding and solution-casting technique. The quality factors of the fabricated silk protein microresonators are on the order of 10. A high-sensitivity thermal sensor was realized in this silk fibroin microtoroid with a sensitivity of -1.17 nm/K, that is 8 times higher than previous WGM resonator-based thermal sensors. This opens the way to fabricate biodegradable and biocompatible protein based microresonators on a flexible chip for biophotonics applications.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.24.020825 | DOI Listing |
Adv Mater
January 2025
Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus, Pigdons Road, Geelong, VIC, 3216, Australia.
The remarkable toughness (>70 MJ m) of silkworm silk is largely attributed to its hierarchically arranged nanofibrillar nanostructure. Recreating such tough fibers through artificial spinning is often challenging, in part because degummed, dissolved silk is drastically different to the unspun native feedstock found in the spinning gland. The present work demonstrates a method to dissolve silk without degumming to produce a solution containing undegraded fibroin and sericin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Bio Mater
January 2025
Department of Materials Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran.
Burns carry a large surface area, varying in shapes and depths, and an elevated risk of infection. Regardless of the underlying etiology, burns pose significant medical challenges and a high mortality rate. Given the limitations of current therapies, tissue-engineering-based treatments for burns are inevitable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
January 2025
School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, MIIT Key Laboratory of Critical Materials Technology for New Energy Conversion and Storage, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China. Electronic address:
Wound bacterial infections not only impede the healing process but can also give rise to a range of serious complications, thereby posing a substantial risk to human health. Developing effective wound dressings incorporating phototherapy functionalities, specifically photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT), remains a critical area of research in modern wound care. Existing PTT-PDT systems often suffer from challenges such as nanoparticle aggregation and inefficient reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, which are essential for therapeutic efficacy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
January 2025
National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, No. 199 Ren'ai Road, Industrial Park, Suzhou 215123, PR China. Electronic address:
Exogenous genes are inserted into target cells during gene therapy in order to compensate or rectify disorders brought on by faulty or aberrant genes. However, gene therapy is still in its early stages because of its unsatisfactory therapeutic effects which are mainly due to low transfection efficiency of vectors, high toxicity, and poor target specificity. A natural polymer with numerous bioactive sites, good mechanical qualities, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and processability called silk fibroin has gained attention as a possible gene therapy vector.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSmall
January 2025
School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310023, China.
Photolithography is the most widely used micropatterning technique at the micro- and nanoscale in device fabrication. However, traditional photoresists used in photolithography are typically nonaqueous-based toxic substances that require harsh conditions for processing, limiting the development of biofunctional and biocompatible micropatterns. In this study, a protein-based aqueous photoresist derived from chemically modified silk fibroin named SAMA, capable of achieving high-resolution micropatterning (<1.
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