Difference between revisions of "Team:Ecuador/Background"

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a glucose polysaccharide that exhibits numerous properties such as unique nanostructure, high water holding capacity, high degree of polymerization, mechanical strength and high crystallinity
These properties clearly show that BC has tremendous potential and provide a promising future in various fie.

This fusion protein is composed by the cellulose binding domain cipA (CBD cipA) that exhibits a high affinity to cellulose, followed by an elastin like polypeptide (ELP) which allows us an easy and rapid purification and finally the bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) that is a potent osteoinductive cytokine capable of inducing bone and cartilage formation.

In order to get an elastic and functional biomaterial the fusion protein CBD-ELP-BMP2 was coupled to bacterial cellulose by a crosslinking process. This biomaterial can be used in biomedical applications focused on bone and cartilage formation because of its compatibility with the human body.