Monday, May 1, 2017

Is the real Spiderman among us?

Is the process of silk in spiders going to finally be discovered? Will the new spiderman be upon the human race?

Spider silk is the ultimate material as its stronger than steel but also flexible and tougher. It also does not provoke the human immune system and can block bacteria and fungus in some cases. Previously, this material has not taken off due to research not being able to pinpoint the genes in spiders that allow the special material to be made. University of Penn scientists have sequenced the golden orb-weaver spiders entire genome. They found 400 new short sequences never known before which led to determination of the components of the silk that makes it so durable, flexible, and sticky. It turned out to be almost the same size as the human genome. They are calling this spider the 'lab rat' of silk research. The production of silk turned out to be much more complex than hypothesized. In my opinion, this research should help humans create this type of material outside of the spider and help build a material that will make large advancements in the medical field. The real spiderman could soon be upon the human race!

1 comment:

  1. This is an awesome article! I think this would help the medical world with furthering our ability to perform surgeries and diseases. Since it is so strong maybe we could help with broken bones or torn ligaments. This is so cool I hope to hear more about the research done on this.

    ReplyDelete