The Real Life Spider-Man is saving the world

Most people scream at the sight of a spider. And if they don’t scream, they suffer in silence. Arachnophobia is a serious thing. But not so for zoologist Fritz Vollrath, who has dedicated the better part of 40 years studying the 8-legged creatures and their potential value in medicine. His mission is to harness the special powers he sees in the spiders for medical purposes.

The notorious silky webs are spun by spiders by liquid protein and they are quite the miraculous invention. They are pound-for-pound stronger than steel and even biodegradable. Even more absurd is the fact that the entire process barely requires any energy from the spiders. Vollrath wants to use these silky webs in order to transform regenerative medicine.

Image via cnn



"I spent a lot of time just sitting in a chair in a forest watching spiders do their thing to understand their behavior," he says. "If you find an interesting one with unusual silk...you can dissect the spider to see the silk gland and how the silk is spun." His observations have led him to some crazy collaborations, including working with architects and getting sponsored by the US government to research the effect of LSD and other drugs on the spiders.

But Vollrath sees the most potential in the medicinal field. The Ancient Greeks used to use spider webs to treat wounds as they believed it prevented infection and helped healing. Vollrath tested the ancient myths by putting silk dressings on animals and discovered that they blended harmlessly and effectively.

"Spider silk is inherently biocompatible so the wound does not reject it," he says. The silk is also biodegradable, meaning the dressing is simply eaten away as the wound heals."



Some issues however still have to be addressed. For example, harnessing spider silk is an arduous task as it has to be harvested one thread at a time from an anesthetized spider. As spiders are cannibals and anarchids, it makes it near impossible to farm them.

While Vollrath is currently focusing on aiding knee replacement with the spider’s silk, the medical opportunities are nearly endless for rejuvenation. From skin repair, to nerve repair and even artificial bones, there lies a whole vast area of medical opportunities that are still to be discovered.

"Spider have been around for millions of years," says Vollrath. "There is so much more to learn from them."

 

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