Production and processing of spider silk proteins

During 400 million years of evolution spiders became outstanding silk producers. Most spider silks are used for building the web, which reflects an optimized trap for flying prey. In recent years the underlying spider silk proteins have been analyzed, and a biotechnological production system using bacteria as production hosts has been established, which can be up-scaled for industrial needs. Besides the protein fabrication, processing into fibers and other application forms such as hydrogels, spheres or films has been accomplished allowing the use of spider silk in novel materials with tailored properties.