Coatings & surface treatment


When spider webs get inside, our fi rst impulse is to clean them away. But the sticky fi ligree isn’t dirty in itself. In fact, the material we try to keep out of our houses might be the key to tackling bacterial infection in our bodies. Natalie Healey speaks to spider-silk researcher Thomas Scheibel at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, to fi nd out more.


Spin doctor A


fter hours of scrubbing, mopping and vacuuming, you stand back to admire your efforts and congratulate yourself on a successful spring clean. But then your eyes wander to the corner of the ceiling. Strands of sticky silver threads stare mockingly back at you. Spiderwebs are a homemaker’s nemesis and the usual urge is to dust them away lest your abode be mistaken for a haunted house. But the sticky mesh could be more helpful to humans than one might imagine, suggests work from a biomaterials team led by Thomas Scheibel at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Scheibel has been fascinated by spider webs


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for over two decades. He says scientists often focus on the impressive mechanical properties of the silk spiders use to build their homes – it can stretch up to 140% in length without breaking – but there’s even more to it than that. For starters, the material is biodegradable on demand. “Spiders can eat a web,” says Scheibel. “Or it can just hang there in the basement for 200 years.” As such, mimicking spider webs could help us manufacture plastics that won’t have adverse effects on the environment. Spider silk also has a lot to bring to the table when it comes to medical applications. The material is not immunogenic, which means it does not trigger the body’s invader


Medical Device Developments / www.nsmedicaldevices.com Medical Device Developments / www.nsmedicaldevices.com


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