Silk products modelled on spider webs could be used to repair the human body

[The Straight Story]

On the roof of the University of Oxford sits a greenhouse full of golden orb spiders cared for by one of the world’s foremost experts on the arachnids.

Professor Fritz Vollrath has been studying the remarkably strong and elastic silk these spiders use to make their webs.

Professor Vollrath believes the spider silk has huge potential in medicine as it is ‘biocompatible’, meaning it allows the body’s own cells to grow through and integrate with the material.

In a high tech lab, Vollrath’s research is being applied to create silk-based products that can replace damaged knee cartilage, hopefully reducing the need for knee joint replacements.

Clinical trials for the cartilage substitute begin next year, and silk is also being considered for the repair of heart valves, severed nerves and spinal columns.

video at link:

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/thecure/2013/06/2013628134541570302.html

[PoliticAverse]

1. Can't you just get the same effect by swallowing a spider ?... n/t

[The Straight Story]

2. Tried that, all I got were these spidey powers

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Only if it's preceded by a fly and followed by a bird,

a cat, a dog, and. . .well, you get the picture.

[Cleita]

4. I find Black Widow spider webs amazingly tough.

I don't know if I would want to cultivate those lethal ladies though. I don't know if the Golden Orb spiders are poisonous.

[Posteritatis]

5. They're of the "augh dammit that hurts" school of poison rather than the "update the will" school

More unpleasant than a bee sting from what I'd heard, but no more dangerous.

Last year some people managed to cultivate enough silk to make a cape from it; astonishing piece of work. I don't want to think too hard about how much effort went into it.