Spider silk research: From bone regeneration to bulletproof vests Dr. Patrick Rose February 23 A European garden spider (Araneus diadematus) wraps its prey, a mosquito, in silk on Sept.16, 2014, in Lille, France. (Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images) To date, a myriad of possible uses for spider silk have been proposed including medical applications, cosmetics, composite materials for aircraft, protective body armor and incorporation into textiles. If you scour the maker space, you can easily identify up to 10 companies already using spider silk for these various applications. These companies have developed industrial-scale processes to ferment synthetic spider silk in bacteria. The result is a growing industry of sustainably sourced and environmentally friendly material that can supplant other raw materials limited by finite availability. The other aspect of spider silk is that it holds the promise of delivering impressive new functionalities and features for differe