Biomimetic spider silk fibres: from vision to reality

Silk is a well-known and unique material that has been used in different applications for more than 5,000 years. The shiny silk fabrics that we know are actually made of threads created by the Chinese silkworm, but various arthropods can produce silks. Spider silk, for instance, is known to be the toughest fibre on Earth, outperforming both naturally and human-made fibres. Due to the problems of farming typically cannibalistic spiders, biotechnological approaches have been developed for producing spider silk proteins, which can be subsequently spun into biomimetic fibres. Here, we discuss recent developments in recombinant spider silk production and processing.