This exhibit will show you the different stages of the silkworm life cycle and some of the materials and research areas being investigated by the Coburn lab. Silk is achieving new applications in biomedical engineering. Silk fibroin, a protein produced by silk, is used in drug delivery, disease modeling and can be fabricated into films, fibers, particles, hydrogels and scaffolds.
I am a Biomedical Engineering professor. In high school, I did heating and air conditioning which got me interested in engineering. When I started college, I attended a talk by one of my professors, now co-worker Susan Roberts, about materials from nature (seaweed actually) that she was using to grow cells to treat diabetes. I made the connection to family members that needed an organ transplant and was struck – I knew I wanted to pursue a career that could translate to improving people’s lives. Learn more.
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