In spite of all the efforts on deciphering such spinning process of spiders, the underlying mechanism currently is yet to be fully revealed. In this research, we designed a novel approach to quantitatively estimate the overall concentration change of spider silk along the progression of liquid-to-solid silk transition from the gland silk. As a prior characterization, we first studied the influe...

The role of liquid crystalline mesophases in polymer crystallization has seen increased attention following the observations of meta-stable liquid crystalline pre-ordering in the crystallization of isotactic polypropylene and other flexible polymers [1–7]. In addition to these recent observations, both in Nature and industry liquid crystal mesophases are used to create polymeric materials with ...

Many kinds of membrane have been used for the guided bone regeneration (GBR) technique. However, most membranes do not fulfill all requirements for the ideal membrane for the GBR technique. Among them, collagen membrane has been most widely used. However, its high price and weak tensile strength in wet condition are limitations for wide clinical application. Synthetic polymers have also been us...

We present a silk biomaterial platform with highly tunable mechanical and degradation properties for engineering and regeneration of soft tissues such as, skin, adipose, and neural tissue, with elasticity properties in the kilopascal range. Lyophilized silk sponges were prepared under different process conditions and the effect of silk molecular weight, concentration and crystallinity on 3D sca...

Bombyx mori (silkworm) silk proteins have been utilized as unique biomaterials for various medical applications. To develop a novel affinity silk material, we generated a transgenic silkworm that spins silk protein containing the fibroin L-chain linked with the single-chain variable fragment (scFv) as a fusion protein. Previously, the scFv-conjugated "affinity" silk powder specifically immunopr...

Textile materials made from natural fibers have played an important role in the life of human beings from time immemorial and still are widely used in the modern textiles industry for their unique properties as high quality tex tile materials. Due to the variation in staple length, the natural fibers with short staple length can’t be used to spin yarns. Consequently, natural fibers such as wool...

Arthropods face several key challenges in processing concentrated feedstocks of proteins (silk dope) into solid, semi-crystalline silk fibres. Strikingly, independently evolved lineages of silk-producing organisms have converged on the use of liquid crystal intermediates (mesophases) to reduce the viscosity of silk dope and assist the formation of supramolecular structure. However, the exact na...

Silk-based medical products have a long history of use as a material for surgical sutures because of their desirable mechanical properties. However, silk fibroin fabric has been reported to be haemolytic when in direct contact with blood. The layer-by-layer self-assembly technique provides a method for surface modification to improve the biocompatibility of silk fibroin fabrics. Regenerated sil...

PURPOSE To evaluate the safety and efficacy of silk suture as an agent for preoperative embolization of cerebral arteriovenous malformations. METHODS Clinical and histopathologic results were analyzed in six patients who underwent embolization of cerebral arteriovenous malformations using silk suture in combination with other agents. RESULTS Three of the patients treated with silk hemorrhag...

Silks produced by spiders and silkworms are charming natural biological materials with highly optimized hierarchical structures and outstanding physicomechanical properties. The superior performance of silks relies on the integration of a unique protein sequence, a distinctive spinning process, and complex hierarchical structures. Silks have been prepared to form a variety of morphologies and a...