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Published On September 22, 2012
TECHNOLOGY
Silk's Healing Touch
Silk’s strength makes it an asset in the medical field.
III
Act in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which Bottom alludes to the healing benefits of spider silk: “I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb. If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you.”
5
Millennia during which silk, which is biocompatible, has been used in sutures
2011
Year in which scientists published a study describing how they grew a healthy layer of skin by harvesting spider silk, weaving it into a mesh on a steel frame and seeding the mesh with cells and nutrients
140
Degrees Fahrenheit at which one vaccine and two antibiotics were able to remain potent for two weeks or more by stabilizing them in a silk protein, as found in a study by Tufts University; the silk prevented the drugs’ bioactive molecules from changing, thus preserving their potency
150,000
Dollars awarded to William Marcotte, a professor in genetics and biochemistry at Clemson University, to support his research on how to insert a spider’s silk-making genes into plants to produce synthetic silk for artificial tendons, cell scaffolds for bone and cartilage implants, and for other uses
2
Number of surgeries that bone graft patients commonly undergo; once fractured bones are healed, the second operation removes the implants (often made of titanium or ceramic, both of which can cause health problems) that are used to hold bone pieces tightly together; by replacing these with silk scaffolds, the second procedure might one day be eliminated, because silk degrades naturally after healing
Dispatches

One Thing Leads to the Next Robert Lefkowitz is best known for revealing the mechanism behind hundreds of drugs in use today. But he thinks of himself as a storyteller first and has a new book out to make his case.

Podcast: The Research Year That Was Medical research labs have faced a difficult stretch of closed buildings and competing priorities. Yet they have also produced milestone discoveries—and not only on COVID-19.

The Shape of Us Two milestone discoveries in protein modeling promise to change the fundamentals of drug discovery.

Universal Flu Vaccines Move Forward In the shadow of coronavirus vaccine development, another vaccine was making solid progress.

New Hope for Controlling HIV By studying elite controllers—people who are able to arrest the progress of HIV without medication—researchers have found a promising new path.

Progress on a Different Plague A novel use of bacteria could blunt the spread of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases.

A Better Cholera Vaccine? Puzzling through the cholera antibody response may help slow a disease that affects millions of people every year.

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