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From Charlotte Lee
Speaker: Professor Sara Goodacre
Title: Smarter than a spider: nature inspired biomaterials and pest-control
Abstract: The natural world provides the blueprint
for materials that can be useful in fields of medicine and engineering. In this
lecture I will explore how different spider silks can be made synthetically in
the laboratory, and how these can be further improved for human use by the
addition of useful chemical properties, such as antibiotic activity. I will
also explore how the natural ability of spiders to act as predators of pests in
settings such as agricultural fields can be harnessed as an a natural
alternative to the use of pesticides.
Further reading:
https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7007-7-32
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.201604245
https://thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist/158-biologist/features/2390-gone-with-the-wind
