No need to be bitten by a radioactive spider, your friendly neighborhood spidermen from the University of California-Berkeley have devised the means to spin artificial spider silk and the technology is available for licensing.
Novel uses for spider silk have been popularized in comic books, but the usefulness of spider silk is very real. Dragline silk is five times stronger by weight than steel, has a tensile strength that is comparable to Kevlar, and has the same toughness as commercial polyaramids, which are used to make bulletproof apparel. In addition to its ultra toughness, dragline fibers are not rejected by the human body, making it potentially useful in tissue engineering scaffolds, artificial muscles, and wound dressing.
Whereas silk has been used by man throughout history, the inability to domesticate spiders due to their carnivorous and territorial nature has made it difficult to cultivate bulk quantities of this extremely useful material. Consequently, researchers have developed means of generating spider silk ex vivo. Both chemical and genetic bases of silk proteins have been established, however the crucial mechanism of spinning has yet to be fully realized until now. The present mechanisms tend to damage the polymer proteins and denature the functional biomolecules.
Researchers David N. Breslauer and Luke P. Lee at the University of California have developed a technique to spin spider silk that has properties comparable to silk spun in vivo without these side effects. Using ambient temperatures, pressures, and solvents, the difficulty and cost of manufacture is also drastically reduced. The technology can be applied to drastically fine-tune the spinning of many polymers and materials, enabling precision control over micro- and macroscale fiber properties (e.g. molecular alignment and fiber strength.) This new technology offers a variety of applications, spanning from engineering, apparel, and medicine.
Whereas silk has been used by man throughout history, the inability to domesticate spiders due to their carnivorous and territorial nature has made it difficult to cultivate bulk quantities of this extremely useful material. Consequently, researchers have developed means of generating spider silk ex vivo. Both chemical and genetic bases of silk proteins have been established, however the crucial mechanism of spinning has yet to be fully realized until now. The present mechanisms tend to damage the polymer proteins and denature the functional biomolecules.
Researchers David N. Breslauer and Luke P. Lee at the University of California have developed a technique to spin spider silk that has properties comparable to silk spun in vivo without these side effects. Using ambient temperatures, pressures, and solvents, the difficulty and cost of manufacture is also drastically reduced. The technology can be applied to drastically fine-tune the spinning of many polymers and materials, enabling precision control over micro- and macroscale fiber properties (e.g. molecular alignment and fiber strength.) This new technology offers a variety of applications, spanning from engineering, apparel, and medicine.
Applications include: textiles, industrial material, armor and other apparel, artificial muscle and tissue scaffolds, wound dressing.
Advantages include: low-cost, applicable to many materials, molecular-level tuning of fiber, wide range control of macroscale mechanical properties
The technology is patent pending, U.S. Patent Application 20100013115 was published on January 21st, 2010.
Parties interested in the technology should contact the University of California, Berkeley Office of Technology Licensing.
2150 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 510, Berkeley, CA 94704 | ipira.berkeley.edu/
Tel: 510.643.7201 | Fax: 510.642.4566 | otl-feedback@lists.berkeley.edu
Tel: 510.643.7201 | Fax: 510.642.4566 | otl-feedback@lists.berkeley.edu
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