Team:LACAS BioBots/Project


IDEA

Nacre, or the mother of pearl is a substance that has many potential applications in the coating industry, due to its tensile properties, and the medical industry, as bone grafts due to osteogenic ability. Nacre is formed in Molluscs and is commonly known to us as pearls. Our project isolated 3 major proteins out of the more than 20 proteins actually involved in nacre formation. Our idea was to use E.coli to produce these proteins, and incorporate them into a synthetic nacre-like substance.



Main Proteins
  • dermatopontin
  • nacrein
  • mrnp49

    • Approaches

  • Ureolytic bacteria induced Calcium Carbonate precipitation, incorporated with nacre proteins.
  • pressure induced calcium carbonate nanocrystals formation and incorporated with nacre
  • simple crystallization of calcium carbonate with proteins in solution