Cheryl Hayashi
Putting Spider Silk to Work in Today's World
Dr. Cheryl Hayashi, a biologist at UC Riverside, is a nationally renowned expert on spider silk. A 2007 winner of a prestigious "Genius" MacArthur Fellowship, her lab has made key discoveries about the genetic blueprints for proteins in dragline, egg case, and capture silks. In addition, her research group studies the extraordinary and diverse mechanical properties of spider silks, such as extreme elasticity, tensile strength, and toughness. These findings not only increase our understanding of spiders and their silks, but also will help biotechnologists develop a variety of new materials for industrial, medical and military applications.
Ounce per ounce, some silks are five times tougher than steel, yet lighter than cotton and one-tenth the diameter of a human hair. As a result, they are being considered for such products as lightweight super-strong body armor, specialty ropes, biodegradable surgical sutures, components of medical devices and high-tech athletic attire.
The MacArthur Fellowship is a no-strings-attached, five-year grant to individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work, promise for future advances, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate new work. For more than a decade, Hayashi has been performing molecular and mechanical characterization of silks.
Undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and visiting professors participate in her research at UC Riverside.
