10135287Characterisation of new-to-world synthetic proteins for high-performance, sustainable textilesClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKOur project aims to revolutionise the sustainable materials market by characterising the unique properties of Solena's innovative materials. This project aims to demonstrate that our fibres have the potential to transform various industries, including fashion, healthcare, and consumer goods, by providing high performance while also reducing the environmental impact. The proteins which form the basis of our sustainable fibres are designed in-house and are thus completely new-to-world, therefore understanding the composition and properties of the fibres is crucial to demonstrating their competitiveness. This challenge is further compounded by the need for a high throughput -- our deep learning models design many candidate proteins to be compared. Therefore, our samples are incompatible with most conventional materials characterisation techniques. Measurement of the key material properties would enable us to rapidly choose the most optimal proteins and fabrication conditions for scaling up production. By partnering with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), we would be able to demonstrate how our fibres surpass natural and synthetic alternatives on the market, and obtain a much larger dataset of the material properties for our different protein fibres. We would then use these measurements as training data for our models, which would enable us to not only optimise the protein design much more quickly and accurately, but to rapidly explore new protein spaces. We could then start to bring our products to market. The expected outputs of this project include the first measurements of a variety of material properties of our fibres, knowhow on the effect of fibre production parameters on these properties, and a final report. These outputs will help Solena develop improved protein fibres and thus cater to the increasing demand for high-performance and environmentally friendly materials. This project also represents a significant leap forward in the development of sustainable materials, with the potential to disrupt various industries by offering high-performance, bio-based alternatives to petrochemical-derived synthetic materials. The successful execution of this project, in partnership with NPL, will not only position us as a leader in the sustainable materials market by enabling us to attract new customers who are seeking specific material properties, but also contribute to meeting global climate goals and fostering a greener, more sustainable future.