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USU’s Spider Silk Lab Spinning Webs of CommercializationWritten by Elenor Heyborne (/index.php/component/contact/contact/2) on 02 February 2014.

Most of us see spider webs and look right past them, never paying asecond thought to their strength and complexity. We never see the hidden

potential such as the fact spider silk is 100 times stronger than natural

ligaments, 10 times stronger than natural tendons, stronger than Kevlar andmore elastic than nylon.

However, Utah State University (USU) Utah Science Technology andResearch (USTAR) professor Randy Lewis knows just what is possible.He has been perfecting the development of synthetic spider silk protein formore than 20 years now.

In addition to his vast knowledge on the creation of synthetic spider silkproteins, he also mentors and runs a lab full of undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students, allowing them to have hands-onexperience in both the research and application process.

In Lewis’ early research years, he knew that the mechanical properties of spider silk had a lot to offer the marketplace but nobody knewmuch beyond that. He was part of the first group to successfully clone spider genes, and since then has been able to clone the vast majorityof genes that spiders use to make their silk.

“Once we had the genes, then we had the methodology to start spinning that out,” said Lewis. “We have different mechanisms we use toproduce spider silk proteins. Currently we are harvesting proteins from E. coli bacteria, transgenic goats, alfalfa plants, and silkworms.”

The synthetic spider silk protein has a broad set of commercial applicationsincluding strings, ropes, tire cords, tents, sails, medical scaffolding and tissuereplacement, medical coatings and sealants, 3D printing resins and liquid gels andcosmetics. Additionally, the material is so strong that Lewis’s lab is testing the filmas a composite layer for football helmets to absorb energy. The spider silk protein

diffuses the blunt force trauma, reducing the concussive force on the skull.

The Spider Silk Lab, housed within the Synthetic Biomanufacturing Institute(http://sbi.usu.edu/) (SBI) on USU’s campus, is the epicenter for conducting

research on these proteins, and for spinning and testing proteins to determine theirstrength and validity for various market applications. The SBI will be holding their

annual Science and Technology Review Meeting on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 at the USU Eccles Conference Center. Current andpotential industry partners are invited to come learn more about the most recent research and intellectual property updates. The SBI annual

review is a great way to interact with SBI researchers, and the many undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students working onspider silk projects.

One of those students, Tom Harris, says spending the past two years in the Spider Silk lab doing research and collaborating with industry to

test various applications of the protein will set him apart from other grad school applicants. The most rewarding aspect for Harris has beenseeing the applications come to fruition.

“What makes it worth it is seeing the application become tangible,” said Harris. “My senior design group investigated an artificial ligament

and tendon made from spider silk. It’s situations like that where you can say ‘Oh, cool, here’s a product that could go to market in a coupleof years and be beneficial to people.”

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Several rounds of research, testing and refining the processes involved in the production, harvesting and purification of multiple types of

synthetic spider silk proteins have been conducted. As a result, USU’s spin out company, Araknitek, is now ready to partner with industry.Araknitek will sell spider silk proteins that will be used to develop products with the unique characteristics provided by the spider silk

proteins.

“We are working hard to scale-up production specifically in bacteria to make prototypes,”said Lewis. A new scale-up facility is now under construction and the goal is to be able to

produce enough protein so that we can produce a wide variety of prototypes to indicatewhat a commercial partner could expect to create for the marketplace.”

Utah State University expects to have the new scale-up facility up and running to provide

proteins to commercial partners by late Spring of 2014. “We feel enthusiastic about thecommercial potential of synthetic spider silk,” said Robert Behunin, Vice President for

Advancement and Commercialization. “It’s always exciting to see valuable research beingconducted by faculty and students enter the marketplace and help revolutionize an industry.”

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