Synthetic spider silk could advance sustainable apparel

Since engineering recombinant spider silk in 2018 using bacteria, Fuzhong Zhang, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, has been working to increase the yield of silk threads produced from microbes while maintaining its properties of enhanced strength and toughness.

Higher yields will be critical if synthetic silk is to be used in everyday applications, particularly in the fashion industry where renewable materials are in demand to stem the environmental impacts that come from producing an estimated 100 billion garments and 92 million tons of waste annually.

Using an engineered mussel foot protein, Zhang has created new spider silk fusion proteins dubbed bi-terminal Mfp fused silks (btMSilks). Microbial production of btMSilks is said to have had eightfold higher yields than recombinant silk proteins, and the btMSilk fibres have improved strength and toughness while being lightweight. The findings have been published in Nature Communications.