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Silk Roads
04 September 2017

Silk Roads

A staple of the textile industry for thousands of years, the larva of the silk moth Bombyx mori (pictured) has recently inspired a new breakthrough in biomedical engineering. Known as a silkworm, it spins a delicate cocoon of silk to protect itself during its transformation from caterpillar to butterfly. Researchers have replicated this extraordinary process on a microscopic scale to create silken 'micrococoons', which could help preserve and transport delicate molecules. Many antibodies, for example, are unsuitable for clinical use because they clump together at high concentrations, rendering them useless. Initial tests with antibodies directed against proteins thought to be involved in Parkinson’s disease suggest that encapsulating them in silk could solve this problem. A natural material, silk is already known to be safe for human use. Using it to store and deliver antibodies should extend the shelf-life of molecules we already use, and enable new treatments to be developed.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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