Silk Fibroin as Platform for Neural Cells and Hybrid Optoelectronics

Natural fibres are increasingly used for non-textile application with high technological content for the possibility to create a bio-based material and then respond to the growing request for environmentally friendly products. Together with bast fibre broadly used for bio-composites materials, silk fibre produced by the Bombyx mori L. insect also found a huge field of high tech application in health industries and electronics, in particular for its principal component: the silk fibroin. Chemical and physical properties of silk fibroin have been extensively studied for its suitability as biomaterial. In particular rate controlled biodegradability, flexibility, mechanical resistance and optical transparency combined with its feasibility for different biomaterials forms (as sponge, hydrogel films) have made silk-fibroin a first choice natural biomaterial for its application as scaffold matrix for temporary medical implants in tissue engineering. Moreover, we recently defined a novel route for silk, employing silk fibroin thin films as organic electronic integrated components with electronic functionality in organic device. On these basis the activity of our research team was also targeted to define the effect of B. mori silk fibroin thin films, as scaffold or drug delivery matrix, on the viability and bioelectrical properties of different neural cells such as astrocytes and neurons. Future researches will be focused on the definition of a complete and sustainable chain, starting from the cultivation of the mulberry trees to the processing of fibroin for different uses, linking high tech applications to local resources, thus representing a new opportunity for rural area and farmer incomes.