Primer on Bioproducts - BIOCAP Canada

Specialty BioproductsOccasionally, nature’s cues for industry come fromdisparate places. Consider Montreal’s NexiaBiotechnologies Inc. In its bid to make a superstrengthmaterial for bullet proof vests, medicalsutures and other commercial uses, Nexia realizedthat some of the world’s most resilient and durablefibres were being produced every day in attics andgardens around the world. It discovered thatspider web silk has a tensile strength of about135,000 kilograms per square inch and is bothstronger and lighter than material based on steel orpetrochemicals. Since spiders are difficult to raisein commercially useful numbers (they eat eachother), Nexia soon hit on the idea of splicing thegene that codes for the spider silk protein into theDNA of a goat. The goat then produces the silkprotein in its milk. The next step is extracting theprotein from the milk and making it into useablefibre.Bioproducts and NanotechnologyNanotechnology is the delicate science of buildingdevices and materials one molecule, or even oneatom, at a time. By understanding the world at thescale of a nanometre — one billionth of a metre, orabout a hundred-thousandth of the diameter of ahuman hair — some scientists believe they can createmicroscopic machines and materials for use in industry.For example, organic proteins create complex andminute structures within living cells that can serve asmolecule-scale scaffolds, cables, motors, ion pores,pumps, coatings and chemically powered levers.Similarly, biological organisms can control theconstruction of inorganic structures within living tissue,such as bone, teeth and the inorganic skeletons ofdiatoms and other algae. Biological mineralization, asthe process is known, is providing nanoscientists withthe tools they need to build microscopic silicastructures (such as those used in the development ofinformation technologies) or to devise better medicalmeans of replacing and regenerating bone.Engineered protein machines can be embeddedin synthetic nanomembranes that may one daybreak down cellulose more efficiently or producehydrogen for fuel cells.Source:US Department of Energy Genomes to LifeProgram. http://doegenomestolife.orgPRIMER ON BIOPRODUCTS45