The World's First Genetically Modified Spider Could Change The Future Of Military Tech

Scientists backed by the U.S. Navy have created the world's first genetically modified spider. This achievement could pave the way to a new category of high-performance materials with major implications for defense, aerospace, and medicine.

What Happened: A team at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, led by biomaterials expert Professor Thomas Scheibel, used CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology on the common house spider (Parasteatoda tepidariorum), according to Fast Company. This enabled researchers to modify spider silk at the genetic level, resulting in fibers that glow red under UV light, which is a visible indication of successful gene insertion.

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Why It Matters: Spider silk is known for its strength, flexibility, and light weight. It has outperformed materials like Kevlar in certain tests.

The military is especially interested in these properties for applications like lightweight body armor and radiation-resistant equipment. "We have demonstrated, for the first time worldwide, that CRISPR-Cas9 can be used to incorporate a desired sequence into spider silk proteins," said Scheibel.

This paves the path to spider silk that is not just durable, but also responsive, possibly capable of detecting toxins or altering shape with moisture.

By modifying spider silk internally instead of relying on expensive lab processing after extraction, new types of silk can be custom-made from the inside out. While the U.S. Navy's focus lies on defense tech, the same silk could be used for surgical sutures, medical implants, biodegradable textiles and ultra-light aircraft parts.

However, there is still a long way to go before genetically modified spiders become a factory staple. Success rates for gene-editing are low, and they have spiders' cannibalistic tendencies, which make large-scale production challenging.

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