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Can the venerated silk be the next-generation nanobiomaterial for biomedical-device designing, regenerative medicine and drug delivery? Prospects and hitches

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Abstract

Of late, the relevance of silk in a myriad of material science and biotechnological realms has been realized, as attested by the incessantly clambering number of reports and patents in the scientific repositories. The write-up is geared off with a scrutiny into the pertinence of the basic nano-structural features of silk, christened as the ‘queen of textile’ for exemplary bioengineering applications including designing and fabrication of devices for microfluidics, optofluidics, chemo/bio sensing, etc. Then, the major thrust of this short review is directed towards comprehending the prospects of using silk-based biomaterials (e.g. scaffolds, electrospun membranes, films, hydrogels, bioinks) for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as well as targeted delivery of various biomolecular cargoes/therapeutic agents, etc., as vouched by few avant-garde endeavours of the recent years. The write-up is entwined with a discussion on the various factors that could plausibly hinder the realization of silk as the next-generation nanobiomaterial, suggestions for some approaches to dodge and deal with the practical snags and what lies ahead!

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Acknowledgements

I would like to offer a note of gratitude to Dr. Biman B. Mandal, IIT Guwahati, India, for introducing me to the awe-inspiring niche of silk-bioengineering.

Funding

The author did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors while compiling this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, 16417, Akaki Kality, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Rocktotpal Konwarh

  2. Centre of Excellence- Nanotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, 16417, Akaki Kality, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Rocktotpal Konwarh

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Correspondence to Rocktotpal Konwarh.

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No studies with human or animal subjects were conducted afresh by the author for inclusion in this review article.

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Konwarh, R. Can the venerated silk be the next-generation nanobiomaterial for biomedical-device designing, regenerative medicine and drug delivery? Prospects and hitches. Bio-des. Manuf. 2, 278–286 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42242-019-00052-9

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