THE way spider silk hardens when exposed to air has inspired engineers to build microcapsules capable of housing living cells.
Sang-Hoon Lee, a biomedical engineer at Korea University in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues have found a way to surround yeast cells with a silk-like liquid polymer. This is then hardened using ultraviolet light.
The capsules could ultimately be used in gene therapy, to protect DNA on its way to target cells. The team has demonstrated that the capsules can hold live yeast cells in good condition for up to two days (Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, vol 16,…
