Ex vivo Spider silk, an exploration of the novel method for the dissection and culturing of spider silk glands.Tools Thornber, Morgan Kevan (2025) Ex vivo Spider silk, an exploration of the novel method for the dissection and culturing of spider silk glands. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
AbstractThis thesis will detail the novel system that has been developed to dissect out and maintain in culture the glands that produce a spider’s silk. As well as the findings surrounding the internal structures of the gland’s cells, this study system will allow exploration of how the glands function under stress and provide potential avenues for future applications and study. This will be done in three parts. Firstly, describing the methodologies for the removal and culture of the silk glands as well as the confirmatory work to show the glands are not just surviving, but actively producing silk. Secondly the exploration of the observational data made possible through viewing the glands in culture. Finally, showing the materials research that is possible through having access to previously inaccessible liquid silk dope for testing, the work surrounding the new methodology for the dissolution and reprinting of native spun spider silk, and the insights this gives us into the way silk proteins fold and organise in the gland that produces one of the most studied biomaterials in the natural world.
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