Scientists Succeed In Creating Artificial Silk From Cow Milk Whey Proteins, Reports Journal

Natural Fibers

Scientists Succeed In Creating Artificial Silk From Cow Milk Whey Proteins, Reports Journal

Scientists have succeeded in creating artificial silk from cow milk whey proteins, according to a study published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which is the official scientific journal of the National Academy of Sciences, USA.

According to the study, nanofibrils were formed by a protein from cow milk whey under the influence of heat and acid. Whey protein is the collection of globular proteins isolated from whey. The protein in cow's milk is 20% whey protein and 80% casein protein.

“Across the globe, many research teams are working on methods to artificially produce silk. Such artificial materials can also be modified to have new, tailor-made characteristics and can serve for applications like novel biosensors or self-dissolving wound dressings, for example,” said Stephan Roth of the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), who is also an adjunct professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden.

According to the study, this advance is likely to pave the way for a new generation of novel biosensors or self-dissolving wound dressings. “Some proteins assemble themselves into nanofibrils under the right conditions. A carrier fluid with these protein nanofibrils is then pumped through a small canal. Additional water enters perpendicular from the sides and squeezes the fibrils together until they stick together and form a fibre,” said Fredrik Lundell from KTH.

The latter process is called hydrodynamic focussing. “The process has several similarities with the way spiders produce their silk threads,” said Christofer Lendel, also from KTH. The shape and characteristics of nanofibrils depend strongly on the protein concentration in the solution. At less than four per cent, long, straight and thick fibrils form, which could be up to 2,000 nanometres long and four to seven nanometres thick. Researchers obtained artificial silk fibres that were roughly five millimetres long and of medium quality, according to the study.