Hierarchical Assembly of Spider Silk Proteins: Exploring Structural Biology of Biomaterials From the Atomic to the Mesoscale

The ability to mimic the true hierarchical assembly of natural biomaterials in the lab remains a significant challenge. A major knowledge gap lies in our understanding of how the different length scales connect from the atomic to the macroscopic. Using an optical light microscope, one can readily observe length scales from the micron to the macroscale. However, connecting the atomic, molecular and mesoscales and the interplay between them is far more challenging in the context of biomaterials formation and performance. We aim to track the atomic, molecular and mesoscale assembly process of protein-based materials using spider silk as our target system. Spider silk is one of the Holy Grails of materials science, exhibiting mechanical properties that rival high tensile steel and toughness that surpasses Kevlar (registered), the material used to fabricate bullet-proof vests. The grand goal of this work is to probe and mimic the atomic, molecular and mesoscale structural and dynamical features and events responsible for natural materials assembly. We stress that this is envisioned as setting the stage for a new field of enquiry, namely, the Structural Biology of Biomaterials.