Abstract of Main Presentation:
Spider silk has existed for over 400 million years, and man has long known
about its strength and lightweight characteristics. Dragline silk is the
type spider’s use as a body tether. This type of silk has a complex
protein structure, resulting in very high specific strength, exceeding that
of Kevlar and carbon fiber. In addition, drag line silk has a strain-to-failure
of 140%, which when combined with the high strength allows silk to absorb
large amounts of energy before breaking.
Professor Lewis’s research includes using goats that have been genetically
engi-neered to produce silk protein in their milk. His team is also investigating
silk pro-duction using silkworms, bacteria, alfalfa, and cotton seed.
Potential markets for the synthetic silk cover a broad range of products,
including aircraft arresting cables for carrier based aircraft, automotive
airbags, parachutes, bullet-proof vests, artificial ligaments, and tendon
or ligament repair.
Biography:
Randy Lewis, professor of molecular biology has studied silk since the late
80’s at the University of Wyoming. Earlier this year, Utah State University
recruited Professor Lewis through the USTAR program to move his research
facili-ties, staff and world-renown capabili-ties to Logan. There, the new
US-TAR building and facilities, the Syn-thetic Bio-Manufacturing Center
and the new USU farm facility will enable his team to expand their research
and explore the potential for com-mercialization.
Professor Lewis’s work has been featured throughout the media, in-cluding
the “Making Stuff: Stronger” program on NOVA, in National Geo-graphic
and Time magazines, and on the Discovery Channel.