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IMAGE: The 128-repeat proteins resulted in a fiber with gigapascal strength which is stronger than common steel. The fibers toughness is higher than Kevlar and all previous recombinant silk fibers. Its. view more
Credit: Washington University in St. Louis/Jingyao Li
Spider silk is said to be one of the strongest, toughest materials on the Earth. Now engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have designed amyloid silk hybrid proteins and produced them in engineered bacteria. The resulting fibers are stronger and tougher than some natural spider silks.
Their research was published in the journal
ACS Nano.
To be precise, the artificial silk dubbed polymeric amyloid fiber was not technically produced by researchers, but by bacteria that were genetically engineered in the lab of Fuzhong Zhang, a professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering.
Polymeric amyloid fibre is as strong as steel and spider silk
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Microbially produced fibers: stronger than steel, tougher than Kevlar
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