Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Stability Of Silk And Collagen Protein Materials In Space, Xiao Hu, Waseem K. Raja, Bo An, Olena Tokareva, Peggy Cebe, David L. Kaplan

Faculty Scholarship for the College of Science & Mathematics

Collagen and silk materials, in neat forms and as silica composites, were flown for 18 months on the International Space Station [Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE)-6] to assess the impact of space radiation on structure and function. As natural biomaterials, the impact of the space environment on films of these proteins was investigated to understand fundamental changes in structure and function related to the future utility in materials and medicine in space environments. About 15% of the film surfaces were etched by heavy ionizing particles such as atomic oxygen, the major component of the low-Earth orbit space environment. Unexpectedly, …