Spider Silk May Benefit Medical Devices
Published date : 15 October 2012
Article date : 15 October 2012
Medgaget reports on how spider silk has been discovered to be an excellent light conduit, nearly approaching fiber optics, thus opening up its use for medical devices. Teams from CNRS Institut de Physiques de Rennes in France and Tufts University will present their research into the light properties of silk, at next week’s Optical Society’s (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics.
Apparently, through being biocompatible, biodegradable, strong and having light properties, silk has potential to be used as a component within implantable devices. The Tufts team is working on creating a material out of silk that mimics plastic whilst retaining its light properties. The French team, meanwhile, is working on utilising spider silk as a material for photonic chips which could provide a new way for developing implantable light sensors that monitor blood, tissue and the body’s health.
Source: medgadget.com, 12 Oct 2012
Read the original article here.
