{"id":206529,"date":"2025-02-15T06:19:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T12:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/researchers-surpass-silkworm-silk-by-taking-a-holistic-approach"},"modified":"2025-02-15T06:19:40","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T12:19:40","slug":"researchers-surpass-silkworm-silk-by-taking-a-holistic-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/researchers-surpass-silkworm-silk-by-taking-a-holistic-approach","title":{"rendered":"Researchers surpass silkworm silk by taking a holistic approach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/researchers-surpass-silkworm-silk-by-taking-a-holistic-approach.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Ben Allardyce and Ph.D. candidate Mr. Martin Zaki from Deakin\u2019s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) have delivered a world first in next-generation materials research. Silkworm silk is a protein-based fiber with mechanical properties rivaling petroleum-derived synthetic fibers, yet spun using a fraction of the energy. Despite decades of research, aspects of natural silkworm spinning remain a mystery.<\/p>\n<p>Published in <i>Advanced Materials<\/i>, the IFM <a href=\"https:\/\/advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/adma.202413786\" target=\"_blank\">discovery<\/a> takes researchers one step closer to solving this mystery by wet-spinning a new class of silk that produces fibers that outperform natural silk.<\/p>\n<p>This research, led by Dr. Allardyce and Mr. Zaki, with expert input from Sheffield University\u2019s Professor Chris Holland, involves sidestepping degumming\u2014a commonplace industrial process\u2014and experimenting with dissolving whole silk fibers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Ben Allardyce and Ph.D. candidate Mr. Martin Zaki from Deakin\u2019s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) have delivered a world first in next-generation materials research. Silkworm silk is a protein-based fiber with mechanical properties rivaling petroleum-derived synthetic fibers, yet spun using a fraction of the energy. Despite decades of research, aspects of natural silkworm spinning [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1635],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-materials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}