Mimicking silk spinning in a microchip

Nature's high performance material, spider silk, is formed during the passage of a protein solution through a spinning duct. Herein we present a microfluidic device with dual laminar mobile phases where silk formation can be mimicked and investigated. Recombinant miniature spidroins, with or without the pH-switching N-terminal domain, were used to investigate spinning conditions into silk-like fibers using this setup.