This project will investigate the chemical and structural complexity behind the fibril and fibre assembly of spider and silkworm silks. Although increasing insights exist on how silk-producing animals generate their different silks, a complete understanding of the molecular assembly steps is still missing—knowledge that is essential for truly mimicking native silk fibres.
To address this, the project will employ a multimodal approach that combines neutron small-angle scattering with UV–visible, Raman, and fluorescence spectroscopy. Using these techniques simultaneously will make it possible to follow structural organisation and molecular dynamics across several length scales, capturing how silk proteins interact and transform during fibrillogenesis.
The work is expected to deliver new molecular-level insight into silk assembly and contribute to the development of advanced biomaterials inspired by natural silks, where precise control of structure and function is key.