Characterisation of site-specifically modified synthetic spider silk at the molecular level

Neil Thomas from the School of Chemistry and Sara Goodacre from the School of Life Sciences, along with the NNNC's Mike Fay and Chris Parmenter, have received funding from UNICAS for a four month project on the Characterisation of site-specifically modified synthetic spider silk at the molecular level. In this project we wish to develop new electron microscopy protocols based on the use of gadolinium ions as markers within a synthetic spider silk in which functional ‘anchor points’ have already been incorporated. Detecting gadolinium ions on an individual basis will allow us to determine the efficiency of functionalization and to deduce and optimise the silk fibre formation process.