Transparent silk hydrogels made from acetone

Silk fibroins are produced from silks of various insects, including silkworms. Silk fibroin is typically processed from an aqueous silk solution into varied material formats, such as fibers, foams, particles, films, and/or hydrogels. Silk fibroin processed from aqueous silk solutions have exhibited favorable characteristics, including, for example: desirable mechanical properties, environmental stability, biocompatibility, and tunable degradation. Control over of the molecular weight of the silk and the degree of crystallinity of silk fibroin in the material format towards achieving favorable characteristics have been explored.

Among other things, the present invention provides silk fibroin-based hydrogels. Provided silk fibroin-based hydrogels are characterized by unique features that provide advantages over existing hydrogels. In particular, silk fibroin-based hydrogels as provided herein are optically transparent in the visible spectrum, possess tunable mechanical properties, and/or are non-toxic so that they are capable of supporting (e.g. with cells). In some embodiments, silk fibroin-based hydrogels as provided are characterized in that they are capable of incorporating functional moieties (e.g. cells) and/or fom1ing desired structures while retaining optical clarity in the visual spectrum. The present disclosure also provides methods of preparing and using such silk fibroin-based hydrogels.

US Continuation Patent Application 16/534,780 filed 8/7/2019

Licensing Contact

Martin Son
martin.son@tufts.edu