Silk used to grow nerves (7/14/2006)
Researchers at Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry in London have developed a
silk like fibre that can be used to grow nerve cells on. The silk, called Spidrex, comes from
modified silk worms. The modified silk allows cells to bind to it easily.
Professor John Priestley, a neuroscientist, and lead researcher has tested the silk in
tissue cultures, and in animals. In both cases, the nerve cells we successfully grown.
Doctors hope that the process can eventually be used to repair nerve damage in humans from cuts or other
nerve damage. Using silk tubes designed to bridge the gap between damaged nerve fibres, the nerves would then
have a scaffold to grow on.
Dr. Priestly went further to say his goal was to repair damaged spinal cords.
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