• Composites Research
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.196-200
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• 2014

A novel, simple and totally recyclable method has been developed for the synthesis of nontoxic, biocompatible and biodegradable bio-composite films from soy protein and silk protein. Bio films are defined as flexible films prepared from biological materials such as protein. These materials have potential application in medical and food as a packaging material. Their use depends on various parameters such as mechanical (strength and modulus), thermal, among others. In this study, prepare and characterization of bio films made from Soy Protein Isolate (SPI) (matrix) and Silk Fiber (SF) (reinforcement) through solution casting method by the addition of plasticizer and crosslinking agent. The obtained SPI and SPI/SF composites were subsequently subjected to evaluate their mechanical and thermal properties by using Universal Testing Machine and Thermal Gravimetric Analyzer respectively. The tensile testing showed significant improvements in strength with increasing amount of SF content and the % elongation at break of the composites of the SPI/SF was lower than that of the matrix. Though the interfacial bonding was moderate, the improvement in tensile strength and modulus was attributed to the higher tensile properties of the silk fiber.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.910-916
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• 2009

Present work was focused on the influence of methylcellulose (MC) on steady rheology of wheat gliadin solution and the properties of glycerol plasticized gliadin films. The presence of MC below 0.99 wt% improved viscosity and flow activation energy of the 10 wt% gliadin solution significantly. In the casting films containing 0.2 g glycerol/g dry protein, the MC component aggregated in the gliadin matrix. The blend films containing less than 7.7 wt% MC exhibited higher Young's modulus (E) and tensile strength (${\sigma}_b$) and lower elongation at break (${\epsilon}_b$) in comparison with the pure gliadin film, which was related to the intermolecular interaction between MC and gliadins, the brittle fracture of the aggregated MC component, and the increase in glass transition temperature ($T_g$) of the gliadin phase. Increasing MC content led to a slight increase in water vapor permeability (WVP) without significant influence on the moisture absorption (MA).

• 한국유가공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.04a
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• pp.59-60
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• 2002

Edible films such as wax coatings, sugar and chocolate covers, and sausage casings, have been used in food applications for years$^{(1)}$ However, interest in edible films and biodegradable polymers has been renewed due to concerns about the environment, a need to reduce the quantity of disposable packaging, and demand by the consumer for higher quality food products. Edible films can function as secondary packaging materials to enhance food quality and reduce the amount of traditional packaging needed. For example, edible films can serve to enhance food quality by acting as moisture and gas barriers, thus, providing protection to a food product after the primary packaging is opened. Edible films are not meant to replace synthetic packaging materials; instead, they provide the potential as food packagings where traditional synthetic or biodegradable plastics cannot function. For instance, edible films can be used as convenient soluble pouches containing single-servings for products such as instant noodles and soup/seasoning combination. In the food industry, they can be used as ingredient delivery systems for delivering pre-measured ingredients during processing. Edible films also can provide the food processors with a variety of new opportunities for product development and processing. Depends on materials of edible films, they also can be sources of nutritional supplements. Especially, whey proteins have excellent amino acid balance while some edible films resources lack adequate amount of certain amino acids, for example, soy protein is low in methionine and wheat flour is low in lysine$^{(2)}$. Whey proteins have a surplus of the essential amino acid lysine, threonine, methionine and isoleucine. Thus, the idea of using whey protein-based films to individually pack cereal products, which often deficient in these amino acids, become very attractive$^{(3)}$. Whey is a by-product of cheese manufacturing and much of annual production is not utilized$^{(4)}$. Development of edible films from whey protein is one of the ways to recover whey from dairy industry waste. Whey proteins as raw materials of film production can be obtained at inexpensive cost. I hypothesize that it is possible to make whey protein-based edible films with improved moisture barrier properties without significantly altering other properties by producing whey protein/lipid emulsion films and these films will be suitable far food applications. The fellowing are the specific otjectives of this research: 1. Develop whey protein/lipid emulsion edible films and determine their microstructures, barrier (moisture and oxygen) and mechanical (tensile strength and elongation) properties. 2. Study the nature of interactions involved in the formation and stability of the films. 3. Investigate thermal properties, heat sealability, and sealing properties of the films. 4. Demonstrate suitability of their application in foods as packaging materials. Methodologies were developed to produce edible films from whey protein isolate (WPI) and concentrate (WPC), and film-forming procedure was optimized. Lipids, butter fat (BF) and candelilla wax (CW), were added into film-forming solutions to produce whey protein/lipid emulsion edible films. Significant reduction in water vapor and oxygen permeabilities of the films could be achieved upon addition of BF and CW. Mechanical properties were also influenced by the lipid type. Microstructures of the films accounted for the differences in their barrier and mechanical properties. Studies with bond-dissociating agents indicated that disulfide and hydrogen bonds, cooperatively, were the primary forces involved in the formation and stability of whey protein/lipid emulsion films. Contribution of hydrophobic interactions was secondary. Thermal properties of the films were studied using differential scanning calorimetry, and the results were used to optimize heat-sealing conditions for the films. Electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA) was used to study the nature of the interfacial interaction of sealed films. All films were heat sealable and showed good seal strengths while the plasticizer type influenced optimum heat-sealing temperatures of the films, 130$^{\circ}$C for sorbitol-plasticized WPI films and 110$^{\circ}$C for glycerol-plasticized WPI films. ESCA spectra showed that the main interactions responsible for the heat-sealed joint of whey protein-based edible films were hydrogen bonds and covalent bonds involving C-0-H and N-C components. Finally, solubility in water, moisture contents, moisture sorption isotherms and sensory attributes (using a trained sensory panel) of the films were determined. Solubility was influenced primarily by the plasticizer in the films, and the higher the plasticizer content, the greater was the solubility of the films in water. Moisture contents of the films showed a strong relationship with moisture sorption isotherm properties of the films. Lower moisture content of the films resulted in lower equilibrium moisture contents at all aw levels. Sensory evaluation of the films revealed that no distinctive odor existed in WPI films. All films tested showed slight sweetness and adhesiveness. Films with lipids were scored as being opaque while films without lipids were scored to be clear. Whey protein/lipid emulsion edible films may be suitable for packaging of powder mix and should be suitable for packaging of non-hygroscopic foods$^{(5,6,7,8,)}$.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.181-186
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• 2001

The objective of this study is to determine the effect of soy protein isolate (SPI) film coating on the color, firmness, viscosity and weight loss of Rice Cake stored at 15, 20 and $25^{\circ}C$ (RH 50%) for 30 days. Raw materials mixed with SPI and cocoa powder (10:0, 7:3, 5:5, 3:7, w/w) were prepared. After adding sugar and shortening to raw materials, the mixture were refined to 25 micron of particle size. Coating of Rice Cake were carried out at $65^{\circ}C$. SPI coated Rice Cake had higher internal and external firmness comparing to the control at $25^{\circ}C$. SPI coated Rice Cake showed smooth surface morphology and had 0.71-1.01 mm of thickness. SPI coated Rice Cake showed less weight loss for 30 days compared to controls. SPI coating solution was successfully coated on Rice Cake and extended shelf-life over 15 days at room temperature.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.81-87
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• 1995

A novel biomaterial capable of incorporating biotinylated biomolecule has been synthesized. Our strategy is to biotinylate one-dimensional electroactive polymers and use a bridging streptavidin protein on Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) organized films. These copolymers are derivatized with long alkyl chains and biotin moieties to bind, respectively, to the hydrophobic surface and the biotinylated species, through the biotin and streptavidin complexation. We utilize the polymer assembly approach to attach a signal transducing biomolecule biotinylated phycoerythrin (B-PE) into this novel biomaterial by binding the unoccupied biotin binding sites on the bound streptavidin (4 sites total). The pressure-area isotherm of the protein injected monolayer showed area expansion. A characteristic fluorescent emission peak at 576nm was detected from the monolayer transferred onto a solid substrate. These observations demonstrated the promise of the organized thin polymer assemblies for their application to the sensor system.

• Interdisciplinary Bio Central
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.6.1-6.5
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• 2010

Fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method provides a novel tool for ab initio calculations of large biomolecules. This method overcomes the size limitation difficulties in conventional molecular orbital methods and has several advantages compared to classical force field approaches. While there are many features in this method, we here focus on explaining the issues related to protein-ligand binding: FMO method provides useful interaction-analysis tools such as IFIE, CAFI and FILM. FMO calculations can provide not only binding energies, which are well correlated with experimental binding affinity, but also QSAR descriptors. In addition, FMO-derived charges improve the descriptions of electrostatic properties and the correlations between docking scores and experimental binding affinities. These calculations can be performed by the ABINIT-MPX program and the calculation results can be visualized by its proper BioStation Viewer. The acceleration of FMO calculations on various computer facilities is ongoing, and we are also developing methods to deal with cytochrome P450, which belongs to the family of drug metabolic enzymes.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.112-116
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• 2005

Composite films were prepared with soy protein isolate (SPI) and various clay minerals by casting from polymer and clay water suspension. Effects of clay minerals on film thickness, moisture content (MC), tensile strength (TS), elongation at break (E), water vapor permeability (WVP), and water solubility (WS) were tested. Properties including thickness, surface smoothness, and homogeneity of films prepared with organically modified montmorillonite (O-MMT), Wamok clay (W-clay), bentonite, talc powder, and zeolite were comparable to those of control SPI films. TS increased significantly (p<0.05) in films prepared with O-MMT and bentonite, while WVP decreased significantly (p<0.05) in bentonite-added films. WS of most nanocomposite films decreased significantly (p<0.05).

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.635-645
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• 2017

In this study, effect of transglutaminase (TGase) addition on physical, water barrier, optical and mechanical properties of mechanically deboned chicken meat protein (MDCM-P) films was investigated. When TGase was added to the films, the thickness increased, but the solubility decreased. Films treated with TGase exhibited higher water vapor permeability than control film (p<0.05). When TGase concentration increased, the $L^*$ values of films decreased, but $a^*$ and $b^*$ values increased. All films showed very good barrier properties against UV light. The highest tensile strength was obtained in MDCM-P films containing 3% TGase (p<0.05). The elongation at break values increased with the TGase concentration increasing from 1 to 3%, but decreased at higher enzyme concentration (p<0.05). The addition of TGase altered molecular organization and intermolecular interaction in the film matrix. TGase treated films showed smoother and ordered surface structure and homogeneous and compact microstructure. The results indicated that TGase use can be an effective approach in improving the solubility and mechanical properties of MDCM-P films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.378.2-378.2
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• 2016

Biosensors currently suffer from severe non-specific adsorption of proteins, which causes false positive errors in detection through overestimation of the affinity value. Overcoming this technical issue motivates our research. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is well known for its ability to reduce the adsorption of biomolecules; hence, it is widely used in various areas of medicine and other biological fields. Likewise, amine functionalized surfaces are widely used for biochemical analysis, drug delivery, medical diagnostics and high throughput screening such as biochips. As a result, many coating techniques have been introduced, one of which is plasma polymerization - a powerful coating method due to its uniformity, homogeneity, mechanical and chemical stability, and excellent adhesion to any substrate. In our previous works, we successfully fabricated plasmapolymerized PEG (PP-PEG) films [1] and amine functionalized films [2] using the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique. In this research, an amine functionalized PP-PEG film was fabricated by using the plasma co-polymerization technique with PEG 200 and ethylenediamine (EDA) as co-precursors. A biocompatible amine functionalized film was surface characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The density of the surface amine functional groups was carried out by quantitative analysis using UV-visible spectroscopy. We found through surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis that non-specific protein adsorption was drastically reduced on amine functionalized PP-PEG films. Our functionalized PP-PEG films show considerable potential for biotechnological applications such as biosensors.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.1053-1059
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• 2006

The effectiveness of a proteinaceous fibrous material formed during commercial fermentation of soy protein (PFSP) and cysteine addition were evaluated in order to improve on the properties of soy protein-based films. Nine types of films were prepared at pH 7, 9, and 11, with heat treatments at $70^{\circ}C\;and\;90^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, by casting 5% (w/w) PFSP aqueous solution, containing 2.25% (w/w) glycerol, on to polystyrene plates. The tensile strength (TS) of films ranged from 3.88 to 6.87 MPa. The highest puncture strength (PS) was observed with pH 7.0 films prepared from PFSP solution heated at $70^{\circ}C$ (P<0.05). Alkaline pH and temperature caused a decrease in both the TS and PS of the films. The thickness of films ranged from $58\;to\;74{\mu}m$. Water vapor permeabilities of the films decreased with increasing pH and temperature. To produce films from PFSP, pH value of 7.0 to 9.0 and heat treatment of $70^{\circ}C\;to\;90^{\circ}C$ were needed. A soluble nature of PFSP films in water might be useful for preparation of hot water-soluble pouches. Cysteine addition could be necessary to produce films with increased TS and enhanced barrier properties. The combination treatment that provided the best combination of barrier and mechanical properties was the PFSP film prepared at pH 7.0 with addition of 1% cysteine. The films were good oxygen barriers.