After five years of work, British scientists have found a way to make synthetic spider silk with antibiotic properties that can help deliver drugs and close open wounds while reducing the risk of infection.

This new material uses silk synthesized by Escherichia coli and attaches molecules to its structure, injecting it with different substances to make better bandages.

"Our technology allows the rapid generation of biocompatible, single or multifunctional silk structures for a wide range of applications," said corresponding author Neil Thomas from the University of Nottingham.

"These will be particularly useful in the fields of tissue engineering and biomedicine."

Although it looks strange, spider silk is actually a very incredible material in terms of first aid. It is biocompatible, biodegradable, protein-based, and does not cause any type of immune, inflammation or allergic reactions.

The team said that the use of spider silk as a wound dressing dates back to ancient Greece and Rome, and they used this material to wrap soldiers’ wounds to stop bleeding.

This process usually involves soldiers using a honey-vinegar mixture as an antiseptic to keep the wound clean, and then wrapping it in clusters of spider silk to ensure its safety.

The team basically adopted this idea and modernized it with new technology. They did not use real spider silk, but made their own spider silk by synthesizing E. coli chains in the laboratory.

Once they completed this procedure, they discovered that they could "decorate" the silk by covering it with the antibiotic levofloxacin, a drug commonly used to treat bacterial infections.

To solve this problem, the molecules are "clicked" into the synthetic spider silk solution before the protein becomes the actual chain.

The best way to imagine this is to imagine a ball of yarn. Before becoming a single strand, the yarn is just a bundle of fibers. At that stage, you can add additional materials or dyes before it is spun into a thread. Then, when all this is done, you can make it into actual yarn with these additional properties.

The team is doing exactly the same thing, but on a smaller, more scientific level, creating an infusion of silk and antibiotics by combining antibiotics with the raw materials needed to spin spider silk.

Interestingly, this team came together by accident. Five years ago, the leaders of the team-Neil Thomas and Sarah Goodk from the University of Nottingham-met at an event when Goodk asked the audience to help her make spider silk.

"At the end of the meeting, Neil walked up to me and said,'I think my team can do it'," Goodeck recalled.

"He also suggested that people can make more interesting'adjustments' so that the silk can be'decorated' with different and useful compounds, or be released permanently, or over time, due to changes in the acidity of the environment.. "

From that moment on, the team worked together to figure out ways to make spider silk and potential bandages in the future, and finally formed the version of the antibiotic-containing material they have today.

"This paper is probably just the beginning of a series of very exciting studies using the new spider silk material," Goodeck said.

The team’s work has been published on Advanced Materials.