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Artificial Skin Made From Spider Silk

Tissue engineer Hanna Wendt has released a study about using spider silk to create artificial skin. The study found that "spider silks display excellent mechanical features that even rival man-made, high-tech fibers," but didn't mention anything about patients gaining the ability to climb walls or sense impending danger. From the article: "Despite being impressed by how human cells responded to spider silk, Wendt thinks the use of synthetic fibers must be considered, especially since harvesting large amounts of spider silk is not practical."

7 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. That all depends... by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2

    on how many spiders you got, mate.

    Now, I'm willing to make a deal on this lot. Something to get you "over the hump", shall we say.

    When I tell you, I think you'll like my price.

    There's more where I got them from. So be a good boy: go and tell your little friends about it, right?

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
    1. Re:That all depends... by rthille · · Score: 2

      You don't need spiders, you just need goats...

      http://www.physorg.com/news194539934.html

      --
      Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
  2. Getting close by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now if you just made the silk radioactive.....

  3. Lots O' Silk... by wsxyz · · Score: 2

    Up in the corners of my living room ceiling, there's a supply good for 1-2 years at least...

  4. Same problem as every other spider silk use by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 2

    It is great and all that they found this to be a viable material for creating skin grafts, but it seems to suffer from the same problems as every other spider silk application or for that mater every novel new material. Basically we can't produce it in useable commercial quantities.

    --
    Time to offend someone
  5. Not exactly "made from" spider silk by _0xd0ad · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's actually grown on spider silk, much like culture grown on a petri dish. They need a suitable substrate to grow it on, but they cultured the skin itself from actual human skin cells.

  6. Re:Impracticality by Adriax · · Score: 2

    It'll never hit mainstream, it's being suppressed by the silk industry to keep prices high.
    Just like the coal and oil industry and water reactors. Our energy needs could be a thing of the past just by creating a running water loop with a pump, and power that pump with a water wheel running off the water loop.

    --
    I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!