Spider Silk in Medicine
Weaving the Way for Innovative Medical Applications

Materials have specific properties which make them useful for certain applications. Medicine is an area in which various material characteristics find a role in the human body. Spider silk fibre has revolutionary properties which make it an excellent new biomaterial. This review article will explore the chemistry, physics and biology of this material. Spider silk fibre has more recently also been reverse engineered into the physical state of an aqueous and ultra-thin film state. This opens up additional possibilities. It also allows implantation of silk material based devices within the human body in a manner that seamlessly conforms to biotic-abiotic interface. The versatile uses of spider silk in medicine include micro sutures (a type of joint found in the skull) with more strength, sturdy bio-scaffolds for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering for artificial skin and nerve grafts, tendon and ligament repair with the required strength and elasticity, weight-bearing artificial knee menisci in Orthopaedic surgery, liquid silk for biological wound dressings, silk micro particles for drug delivery and finally silk optics, bio-photonics, biosensors and bio electronics. The practical challenges and scope of research will revolve around the mass production and genetic engineering of spider silk, and reinventing a material that has existed for millennia.