Production and processing of spider silk proteins

Natural spider silk fibers have impressive mechanical properties (outperforming many man‐made fibers) and are, moreover, biocompatible, biodegradable, and produced under benign conditions (using water as a solvent at ambient temperature). The problems associated with harvesting natural spider silks inspired us to devise a method to produce spider silk‐like proteins biotechnologically (the first subject tackled in this highlight); we subsequently discuss their processing into various materials morphologies, and some potential technical and biomedical applications. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 3957–3963, 2009