Creative BioMart is a well-known expert who is committed to developing a variety of protein biomaterials as multifunctional platforms to study and solve various challenges in regenerative medicine. With years of experience, we provide customized services for elastin-like polypeptides as potential injectable biomaterials and implantable scaffolds to precisely meet customer requirements.

Introduction of Elastin Biomaterials

Elastin is a major component of the extracellular matrix (ECM), it provides biological tissues (lungs, blood vessels, ligaments, or skin) with elasticity and resilience. Due to the unique properties of elastin (lower critical solution temperature phase behavior and minimal immunogenicity), mimicking elastin has been applied to many forms of biomaterials, including insoluble elastin fibers, hydrolyzed soluble elastin, recombinant elastic Proproteins (fragments), repetitions of synthetic peptide sequences, block copolymers of elastin or in combination with other biopolymers.

Fig 1. ELP-based materials that have been engineered for tissue engineering (yellowbackground) and drug delivery (blue background) applications. (Varanko A K, et al., 2020)

Services

Fine control over elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) sequence and length allows precise manipulation of the biological activity, chemical reactivity, and physical properties of ELPs, including their stimulus response and self-assembly behavior, making them attractive for biomedical applications. As a leading service provider of protein engineering, Creative BioMart has established a platform for the design and synthesis of ELP-based materials, enabling the extensive application of the mechanical and biochemical properties of ELP in tissue engineering and drug delivery. We provide one-stop service for elastin biomaterials:

• ELP synthesis service: we combine concatemerization techniques, introduction of linearized vectors, and recursive directed ligation via plasmid reconstruction to generate functional plasmids.
• ELP purification service: taking advantage of the temperature responsiveness of ELP, we purify ELP using the reverse conversion cycle (ITC) technique, which is fast and cost-effective.
• ELP characterization service: we use matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry to determine their molecular weight and ensure that the constructs are expressed without truncation. Their purity was assessed using high performance liquid chromatography and gel electrophoresis. Mechanical testing to characterize stiffness and elasticity of ELP materials. Measure endotoxin levels for all ELPs and their fusions to ensure they meet specified limits. In addition, we evaluated the biocompatibility of ELP and ELP fusions to determine whether cells adhered and proliferated on the material.
• ELP tissue engineering: we structurally and reorganize or chemically modify different ELPs to create ELPs with mechanical and biochemical properties that promote tissue repair. The ELP biomaterials we have developed include: ELP hydrogels, cross-linked ELP hydrogels, fatty acid-modified ELPs, structurally ordered ELP polymers, silk ELPs, electrospun SELP nanofibers, etc.
• ELP drug delivery engineering: due to their unique biophysical properties, ELPs that we designed and synthesized using recombinant DNA methods have been widely used as drug delivery vehicles. Our developed ELP drug carriers include: soluble ELP Unimer, injectable ELP depots, ELP nanoparticles, ELP block copolymers, ELP zwitterionic polypeptides, etc.

Advantages of Elastin Biomaterials

• Compared with synthetic polymers, ELPs can be recombined with complete control over polymer length and sequence to generate monodisperse populations. Avoid affecting plasma half-life, biodistribution and clearance during drug delivery and must therefore be defined with the highest possible precision.
• ELPs can be tailored using biological functional groups at precise positions within the sequence.
• Since ELPs are composed of amino acids, they are biodegradable and have nontoxic by-products.

Creative BioMart is committed to designing customized ELP biomaterials for global biopharmaceutical companies, providing useful materials for tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. We will work with you to develop the most appropriate strategy and provide the most meaningful data for your research for accelerating the research of life sciences. If you are interested in our services, please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

Reference

1. Varanko A K, Su J C, Chilkoti A. (2020) Elastin-like polypeptides for biomedical applications. Annual review of biomedical engineering. 22: 343-369.

• Protein Engineered Calmodulin Materials
• Protein Engineered Coiled-coil Materials
• Protein Engineered Collagen Materials
• Protein Engineered Enzymatically-crosslinkable Materials
• Protein Engineered Silk Materials