Studies of spider silk for biotechnology: From natural to synthetic fibres

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Spider silk has many properties that are advantageous to a biomaterial. In addition to having remarkable tensile strength it is also biocompatible, which makes it an interesting candidate for both bioengineering and medical applications. Due to this, and the relative difficulty of farming spiders due to their cannibalistic nature, much interest has focussed on the recombinant production of synthetic spider silk. Optimisation of the design of recombinant silk proteins relies on our understanding not only of what is transcribed, but of translation and assembly of native silk proteins. Understanding the importance of each of these processes will allow a rational design approach to recombinant silks. This project will aim to shed light on the complex genetic regulation of spider silk genes and use this information to create synthetic silk proteins.