3d Organic Polymer Silk

Musculoskeletal conditions requiring soft tissue repair affect more than 16 million people in the U.S. The push for innovative surgical technologies has sparked a search for new biomaterials analogous to native human tissue. Spider silk is five times the tensile strength of steel by weight, as elastic as rubber, antibacterial, conductive, and hypoallergenic. Applications of this unique biomaterial include artificial tissues such as tendons, ligaments, skin grafts, muscles, and neurons. The 3D Organic Polymer Silk team (3D-OPS) is working to create a cost-effective, novel system, Ariadne 1.0, to manufacture 3D printed spider silk as an alternative to currently used biomedical textiles. The system will utilize native spidroin proteins and modify the biophysical properties of the silk product by altering parameters such as protein-type, ion concentration, or weight to volume ratio and the system’s needle size and print speed. Our design was awarded a provisional patent from the USPTO. We will present our current progress on the design and manufacture of key mechanical parts of Ariadne 1.0 and biochemical experiments involving spidroin proteins. We envision that Ariadne’s versatility will ultimately support a broad spectrum of surgical procedures and the viability of printing artificial tendons, ligaments, and muscle fibers with spider silk.