Spider silk is recognised as one of the strongest, toughest materials on Earth. Now, engineers at Washington University have developed fibres stronger and tougher than some natural spider silks which are produced by engineered bacteria.
The amyloid-silk hybrid proteins were developed in the laboratory of Professor Fuzhong Zhang, who has worked extensively with spider silk. In 2018, his lab engineered bacteria to produce a recombinant spider silk on par with its natural counterparts regarding all important mechanical properties.
“After our previous work, I wondered if we could create something better than spider silk using our synthetic biology platform,” said Zhang.
Zhang and his team modified the amino acid sequence of spider silk proteins to introduce new properties, while maintaining the most attractive features of spider silk.
A problem associated with recombinant spider silk fibre is the need to create β-nanocrystals, a critical component of natural...