TY - JOUR T1 - Transient Expression of a Major Ampullate Spidroin 1 Gene Fragment from <em>Euprosthenops</em> sp. in Mammalian Cells JF - Cancer Genomics - Proteomics JO - Cancer Genomics Proteomics SP - 83 LP - 87 VL - 3 IS - 2 AU - STEFAN GRIP AU - ANNA RISING AU - HELENA NIMMERVOLL AU - ERICA STORCKENFELDT AU - SIMON J. MCQUEEN-MASON AU - NATALIA POUCHKINA-STANTCHEVA AU - FRITZ VOLLRATH AU - WILHELM ENGSTRÖM AU - ARMANDO FERNANDEZ-ARIAS Y1 - 2006/03/01 UR - http://cgp.iiarjournals.org/content/3/2/83.abstract N2 - Spider silk possesses extraordinary and unsurpassed mechanical properties and several attempts have been made to artificially produce spider silk in order to manufacture strong and light engineering composites. In the field of oncology, recombinant spider silk has the potential to be used as a biomaterial for bone replacement after tumour surgery. In this study, a 636-base pair gene fragment, coding for a part of major ampullate spidroin 1 from the African spider, Euprosthenops sp., was cloned into the expression vector pSecTag2/Hygro A, designed for the production of protein in mammalian cells. COS-1 cells were subsequently transfected with the recombinant plasmids and transient expression of low amounts of the corresponding silk protein fragment was obtained. The expressed fragment contained repetitive sequences associated with intrinsic biomechanical properties and has potential as a starting material for designed biopolymers. ER -