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posted by janrinok on Sunday May 06 2018, @07:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the 3-cheers-for-the-silkworm dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

It's strong, stretchy, and compatible with the human body

Silk has been valued for millennia, but in recent years, scientists have paid attention to the material because it's extraordinarily strong, making it useful for bulletproof vests and body armor. The potential of silk is more than just protecting the outside of our anatomy, however, and researchers are now engineering silk so it can one day heal our wounds, hold up our bones, and become part of our bodies.

[...] One possibility is that silk can heal our wounds faster. In a study published recently in the journal Advanced Science, scientists engineered silkworms to spin a light-activated material that disinfects. First, the researchers identified all the natural proteins that could be activated by a specific type of light to create a chemical reaction that kills pathogens, according to Young Kim, a materials scientist at Purdue University and co-author of the paper.

Then, the scientists genetically engineered silkworms by inserting this protein, called mKate 2, into their DNA. These silkworms then produced a red, glowing silk activated by visible green light, like a regular LED light. When the scientists put some E. coli bacteria on the red silk and shined a green light on it for an hour, the survival rate of the bacteria fell by 45 percent. This process is very similar to using hydrogen peroxide to disinfect a cut, says Kim. The fluorescent silk and the light together generate chemicals similar to hydrogen peroxide.

The silk doesn't distinguish harmful pathogens (like E. coli) from benign ones, but, as Kim points out, neither does hydrogen peroxide. And we don't yet know the minimum time the light needs to shine on the silk to be effective. But the discovery is an exciting one, and the material could be used in devices that purify air and water and many areas of health. In another recent paper, Kim and his team figured out the exact physical properties that make silk so cooling, which is useful for treating inflammation. This finding could help us make silk even cooler, or engineer other fabrics to be more cooling as well. Between the self-cooling effects of silk and these bacteria-killing properties, it could be an ideal material for advanced bandages.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/4/17318362/silk-health-medicine-wounds-genetic-engineering-strength


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @11:10AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @11:10AM (#676330)

    Nor does it seem ideal.