6 Jun 2015

Using spider silk for knee replacements

From This Way Up, 1:10 pm on 6 June 2015
Nick Skaer cutting silkworm silk in lab.

Nick Skaer cutting silkworm silk in lab. Photo: Supplied

Like it or not we're getting older, and fatter too; that's bad news for our knee joints that are giving up on us like never before.

Nick Skaer is the CEO of Orthox, a British company trying to cope with the surge in knee replacement surgery by using regenerative silk implants based on the silks spun by silkworms and spiders.