Advanced Spider Silk Fibers by Biomimicry

Spider silk is an ancient biomaterial that is useful for modern medicine and industry. This chapter explains the relevant spider biology, outlines the technical limitations of producing recombinant silk from published literature and describes how biomimicry works. The process begins with spider silk genes, production of recombinant dragline silk proteins in vitro and within in vivo lactation systems, and ends with the purification of silk proteins and their conversion into continuous silk fibers. Finally, this chapter offers a view to the future of the potential for nature inspired performance biomaterials