More than 400 million years of natural selection acting throughout the arthropoda has
resulted in highly specialized and energetically efficient processes to produce protein-based …

Over millions of years Nature has attained highly optimized structural designs with
remarkable toughness, strength, damage resistance and damage tolerance-properties that …

Biological composites have evolved elaborate hierarchical structures to achieve outstanding
mechanical properties using weak but readily available building blocks. Combining the …

Microbially-synthesized protein-based materials are attractive replacements for petroleum-
derived synthetic polymers. However, the high molecular weight, high repetitiveness, and …

The ability of amyloid proteins to form stable β-sheet nanofibrils has made them potential
candidates for material innovation in nanotechnology. However, such a nanoscale feature …

Silkworm silk has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its excellent
mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and promising applications in biomedical sector …

Herein, a synthetic polymer proteomimetic is described that reconstitutes the key structural
elements and function of mussel adhesive protein. The proteomimetic was prepared via graft …

Natural spider silk fibers combine extraordinary properties such as stability and flexibility
which results in a toughness superseding that of all other fiber materials. As the spider's …

With the explosive growth of the world's population and the rapid increase in industrial water
consumption, the world's water supply has fallen into crisis. The shortage of fresh water …

This article reviews fundamental and applied aspects of silk–one of Nature's most intriguing
materials in terms of its strength, toughness, and biological role–in its various forms, from …