Recently, Tao Hu, Researcher of the State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology of Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences led the team to research and develop a new degradable biology with controllable degradation speed through the traditional textile industry. The relevant achievements were published in the latest Advanced Materials, with the title of “The Use of Functionalized Silk Fibroin Films as a Platform for Optical Diffraction-Based Sensing Applications” (DOI: 10.1002/adma.201605471).

Currently, the traditional medical device - “bone nails” for fixing mostly are made of titanium alloy or stainless steel, and it’s disturbing that the nails have to be took out through a second operation after the recovery of the patients. The team led by Tao Hu completed the production process of the biological material by precise processing of the solid of silk fibroin solution which is made of the silk of silkworm cocoon into bone nail with lathe. In addition to the precisely controllable degradation function, the biological material also has the properties at many aspects including drug encapsulation, micro plastic, information hiding, food fresh keeping and drug storage.

Recently, the animal experimental stage for the technology has already been completed, and the further cooperation with the bio-pharmaceutical enterprises is carried out to conduct clinical research; the products are expected to be put into production and appear on the market in 3-4 years, thus realizing the innovative development of the integration of production, study and research.

In a relevant interview, Tao Hu also calculated a bill: a piece of silk quilt requires 5 kg silk material, which can be sold at the price of over CNY 1,000; A set of silk fibroin bone nail only requires less than 0.5g silkworm cocoon; that is to say, the material for a piece of silk quilt can be made into 2,000-3,000 sets of medical devices, the selling price of each of which is about CNY 10,000, therefore, once the technology is available to the public, the traditional low value-added industries are expected to turn into high-tech bioengineering and pharmaceutical industries with high value added.