Silk harnessed for biosensors, lasers microchips

WASHINGTON – New research has shown that natural silk has the potential to be an eco-friendly alternative to more traditional ways of manipulating light, with potential applications in the development of certain medical devices.

Two independent teams of researchers have presented possible applications of the material’s photonic properties in the development of medical devices at the Optical Society’s (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics 2012 this week in Rochester, New York.

Silk is one of the strongest fibers in nature, and is also biocompatible, biodegradable, and extremely hardy. Silk is produced by spiders and silkworms, making it a renewable resource. It has also recently been discovered that silk is an excellent manipulator of light, which can travel through silk almost as easily as it flows through glass fibers.

Biomedical engineer Fiorenzo Omenetto of Tufts University in Boston discussed his team’s work producing protein concoctions that make use of silk’s optical properties for implantable sensors and other biology-technology interfaces.