Silklab News

Videos and Podcasts

In April 2025, Mickey McManus gives a TED Talk on the biomaterial revolution, inspired by silk and nature’s regenerative design

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The ‘What’s Your Problem?’ podcast features Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto as he unravels the surprising secrets and futuristic potential of silk

Professor Omenetto presents the talk: 'The Living Materials Transforming Your Future' at The Explorers Club, New York, January 2025

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Marvel’s Spider-Man podcast explores the iconic superhero while featuring Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto, who shares insights into the science of real-life spider silk and its groundbreaking potential

Tufts reports on Silklab’s use of silk and its potential to revolutionize sustainable material processing

Tufts University released a video about Silklab's chemically sensing fabrics, and TuftsNow released an article, "New smart fabrics with bioactive inks monitor body and environment by changing color"

An October 2013 video: Leading-edge Technologies Session - Innovative City Forum

In 2011, Professor Omenetto gives a Ted Talk on "Silk, the ancient material of the future"

Articles

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Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto has won Optica’s 2025 R.W. Wood Prize for his pioneering work in silk-based optics and photonics.

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A TuftsNow November 2024 article reports on Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto receiving the Tufts Distinguished Innovator award

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A TuftsNow October 2024 article reports on Spider-Man inspired tech: liquid silk that hardens into strong, object-lifting fibers

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A TuftsNow August 2024 article reports on Macodes petola orchid's light-harvesting leaf cells and their potential for advanced biopolymer energy solutions

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A TuftsNow July 2024 article reports on a sustainable method for manufacturing microchips and other nanoscale devices

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Silklab hosted Tällberg workshop in May 2024 on sustainability

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A TuftsNow April 2024 article reports on Tufts being selected as a member of the ARPA-H Investor Catalyst Hub Spoke Network

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A TuftsNow March 2024 article reports on paper-based devices to track health, including Silklab's lactacte patches

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A TuftsNow October 2023 article reports on Silklab's strategies to integrate biology and electronics

Image of Silklab “chameleon” sneaker prototype with patterns made of silk inks

A TuftsNow September 2023 article: Silk Can Keep Your Food Fresher—and Make Your Glue Stickier

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A TuftsNow September 2023 article reports on Silklab's next-generation biomedical materials

- Click here to access the printed version of this article -

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A TuftsNow September 2023 article reports on the discovery of photonic crystal structures in ancient Roman glass

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A TuftsNow January 2023 article reports on Silklab's work on wearable, printable, shapeable Sensors

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A TuftsNow December 2022 article reports on the incredible power of silk-based edible food coating in reducing food waste

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Drug Discovery News reports on silk coating for oral administration of drugs

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RSI (Italian-speaking Swiss Radio & Television) hosts Prof. Omenetto for a meeting about 'The Music of Silk'

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Quanta Magazine and, notably, the Tufts and Silklab alumna Natalie Wolchover awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory writing on the James Webb Space Telescope

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Professor Omenetto and PhD Student Luciana d’Amone discuss their research in the NOVA PBS documentary, Butterfly Blueprints (10:30 timestamp)

A poster for the DLS series featuring Professor Omenetto on February 10, 2022

Professor Omenetto was a 2022 Dinstinguished Lecturer at the Max Planck Institute: Living materials – manipulating light with forms of the past?"

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A January 2022 article by the American Institute of Physics in Phys.org features Silklab's perspective on silk as a material

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A June 2021 wired article titled "The Race to Put Silk in Nearly Everything" reviews the recent history of silk pioneering, and mentions a few silk startups co-founded by Prof. Omenetto

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A June 2021 article in TuftsNow: "Inkjet Printing 'Impossible Materials'"

A photograph of a model airplane built using Silklab glue

"A TuftsNow June 2021 article reports on Silklab's work to Make Powerful Underwater Glue Inspired by Barnacles and Mussels"

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"A June 2021 New Scientist article: "Underwater glue made from silk can cling to surfaces like a barnacle"

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TuftsNow reports in May 2021 that "Tufts SilkLab Creates Leather-like Material from Silk Proteins"

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A Fast Company magazine issue: "This Fake Leather is Made From Silk"

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TuftsNow published in March 2021 the article "Controlled by Light Alone, New Smart Materials Twist, Bend and Move"

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A July 2020 TechTales article: "Smart fabrics with bioactive inks monitor body"

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A July 2020 Scientific American article: "Color-Changing Ink Turns Clothes into Giant Chemical Sensors"

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A TuftsNow November 2019 article: Unlocking Biological Materials for Better Therapies

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An October 2019 Phys Org article: "New silk materials can wrinkle into detailed patterns, then unwrinkle to be 'reprinted'"

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A September 2019 Scientific American article: "The Future of Silk"

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A May 2018 exhibit in the Barcelona Design Museum: "‘Design Does’: Lachesis – Drawing the Fabric of Life"

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A TuftsNow March 2018 article reports on a wireless real-time tooth-implanted sensor that can track what you eat

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A 2017 MIT Technology Video: "Spinning Silk into Sensors"

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A TuftsNow February 2017 article reports about an ultralight, robust and up to nano-scale programmable web made of silk nano fibers

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A December 2016 Phys Org article: "Engineers create programmable silk-based materials with embedded, pre-designed functions"

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A September 2015 Med Device article: "New Bioink Can 3D Print Tissue At Room Temperature"

Representative image of Ultrafast 3-D lasers micropatterning of biocompatible silk hydrogels

A TuftsNow September 2015 article: Ultrafast Lasers Offer 3-D Micropatterning of Biocompatible Silk Hydrogels

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A July 2015 New Atlas article: A July 2015 New Atlas article: "Silk-based functional inks put biosensor data on your fingertips"

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A June 2015 Science Friday article: "The Silk Road’s Turn Toward Biotechnology"

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A June 2015 CNN article: "The healing 'microchip' under your skin"

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A January 2015 Wired article: "Turning silk into edible food wrappers and flexible screens"

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A 2015 Video: "Materiali viventi per il futuro (Living materials for the future)"

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A November 2014 Forbes article: "Wireless Implant Eliminates Bacteria, Then Dissolves"

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An April 2014 Wall Street Journal article: "Bionics to Track Your Health"

Silk.based fabricated nanostructures to make cleaner green rooms

A TuftsNow March 2014 article: Fabricating Nanostructures with Silk Could Make Clean Rooms Green Rooms

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A March 2014 Chemistry World article: "Silkscreen printing goes nano"

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A September 2013 NBC article: "It's Alive(ish)! Brain Cells Grow and Respond in Artificial Tissue"

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A TuftsNow November 2012 article reports about tiny oral sensor may one day help dentists assess their patients’ oral and overall health

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A TuftsNow September 2012 article: Smooth as Silk "Transient Electronics" Dissolve in Body or Environment

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A TuftsNow December 2011 article: Silk Microneedles Deliver Controlled-Release Drugs Painlessly

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A TuftsNow February 2011 article: Common Threads, researchers expanding medical uses of silk

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A TuftsNow August 2010 article: Implantable Silk Metamaterials Could Advance Biomedicine, Biosensing

Image of biomedical engineering researchers Fiorenzo Omenetto, Ph.D., and David Kaplan, Ph.D.

A TuftsNow July 2010 article: Behind the Secrets of Silk Lie High-Tech Opportunities

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A TuftsNow August 2009 article: Silk-Based Optical Waveguides Meet Biomedical Needs

A TuftsNow August 2008 article: "Edible Optics" Could Make Food Safer