1. A re-usable dispensing aid for a cosmetic or pharmaceutical semi-solid preparation packaged in a bag for application to skin, said bag having a seal seam for closing the bag on one end of the bag and a bag tear-off for forming an opening on another end opposite from the one end, said dispensing aid comprising
a housing; and
means for forcing the semi-solid preparation contained in the bag out of the bag, said means for forcing the preparation out of the bag being operable by a single hand of an operator after fixing the bag in a dispensing position in the housing.
2. The dispensing aid as defined in claim 1, further comprising a manually operable retaining device for releasably holding the bag in the housing during operation to dispense the semi-solid preparation, and wherein the retaining device is arranged in the vicinity of the seal seam and is engaged with the bag in the vicinity of the seal seam prior to dispensing the semi-solid preparation.
3. The dispensing aid as defined in claim 1, wherein said means for forcing the preparation out of the bag comprises a squeezing device for squeezing the bag and a slider connected with the squeezing device, wherein said squeezing device is arranged in an interior region of the housing and said slider is slidably mounted on an exterior of the housing for manual operation of the squeezing device by means of a thumb of the hand of the operator.
4. The dispensing aid as defined in claim 3, wherein the squeezing device comprises a roller mounted so as to be rotatable about a rotation axis and said roller is movable in a direction perpendicular to said rotation axis by means of the slider.
5. The dispensing aid as defined in claim 4, wherein said roller is mounted so that said roller exerts a manually applied mechanical pressure on the bag and is movable over a predetermined portion of the bag but remains rotatable while exerting the mechanical pressure on the bag.
6. The dispensing aid as defined in claim 5, wherein said roller is made of an elastomer or rubber material.
7. The dispensing aid as defined in claim 5, wherein the roller traverses a length of from 3 to 10 cm during travel of the roller over the predetermined portion.
8. The dispensing aid as defined in claim 7, wherein said length is from 4 to 7 cm.
9. The dispensing aid as defined in claim 4, wherein said roller has a roller width of from 0.5 to 5 cm.
10. The dispensing aid as defined in claim 9, wherein said roller width is from 1 to 3 cm.
11. A bag for a cosmetic or pharmaceutical semi-solid preparation packaged in a bag, said bag comprising a bag tear-off for forming an opening for dispensing the semi-solid preparation and a seal seam for sealing the bag on an end of the bag opposite from a bag tear-off, wherein the seal seam has a width of more than 5 mm.
12. The bag as defined in claim 11, wherein recesses are provided in the seal seam opposite from the bag tear-off and said seal seam and said recesses are formed for positioning and justifying the bag in a dispensing aid for assisting dispensing the preparation.
13. The bag as defined in claim 11, wherein said width is more than 7 mm.
14. A bag for packaging a cosmetic or pharmaceutical semi-solid preparation and a re-usable dispensing aid for the preparation packaged in the bag;
wherein said bag comprises a bag tear-off for forming an opening for dispensing the semi-solid preparation, said bag tear-off being arranged at one end of the bag, and a seal seam for closing the bag at another end of the bag opposite from the one end having the bag tear-off; and
wherein the dispensing aid comprises
a housing;
retaining means for for releasably holding the bag in the housing during operation to dispense the semi-solid preparation, and wherein the retaining device is arranged at the end of the bag opposite from the bag tear-off and is engaged with the bag in the vicinity of the seal seam prior to dispensing the semi-solid preparation; and
means for forcing the semi-solid preparation contained in the bag out from the bag, said means for forcing being operable by a single hand of an operator after fixing the bag in a dispensing position in the housing.
15. The bag and the dispensing aid as defined in claim 14, wherein said seal seam has a width of more than 5 mm and is provided with a plurality of recesses, and said means for forcing the preparation out from the bag comprises a roller inside of the housing and a manually operable slider outside of the housing and movable along the housing so as to move the roller over a distance of from 3 to 7 cm inside the housing while bearing on the bag in order to squeeze out the contents of the bag when the bag is fixed in the housing.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A protein nanofiber comprising a plurality of fibrils, each fibril being formed by coiled-coil homopentamers of a protein, wherein the protein has a sequence of SEQ ID NO.1 or SEQ ID NO. 2.
2. The protein nanofiber of claim 1, wherein the plurality of fibrils associate with each other along the longitudinal axis to form the nanofibers.
3. The protein nanofiber of claim 2, wherein the diameter of the nanofibers is from 20 nm to 1 micron.
4. The protein nanofiber of claim 3, wherein the diameter of the nanofiber is from 50 to 200 nm.
5. The protein nanofiber of claim 2, wherein the diameter of the fibril is from 1-10 nm.
6. The protein nanofiber of claim 2, wherein the length of the nanofibers is from 1 micron to 30 microns.
7. The protein nanofiber of claim 1, which has associated thereon a plurality of non-protein hydrophobic molecules.
8. A composition comprising the protein nanofibers of claim 1 in a suitable buffer.
9. The composition of claim 8, wherein the protein nanofibers have non-protein hydrophobic molecules bound thereto.
10. The composition of claim 9, wherein the suitable buffer is a phosphate buffer.
11. The composition of claim 10, wherein the pH of the buffer is from 4 to 8.
12. A method of making the nanofibers of claim 1, comprising mixing a plurality of proteins of SEQ ID NO:1 or SEQ ID NO:2 under conditions that permit self-assembly of the proteins to form homopentamers thereby allowing the formation of fibrils, and nanofibers.
13. The method of claim 10, further comprising contacting the nanofibers with a metal nanoparticle precursor such that a film comprising the protein of the nanofibers having metal nanoparticles disposed there is formed.