On Friday November 18th, 2016, Roseman was pleased to have Dr. Randy Lewis come to the NSRG-Roseman Chapter General Body Meeting. During the meeting students and faculty learned about Dr. Lewis' research in Spider Silk and the possible applications of his research, especially in Dentistry.
Dr. Lewis received his BS from CalTech in 1972 and his PhD in 1978 from the UC San Diego. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology. He was on the faculty at U. of Wyoming from 1980 until 2011. Randy joined Utah State University in 2011 as USTAR Professor of Biology. His group has published over 140 papers and 16 book chapters. They have eleven issued patents. He has had grants totaling over $33 million. Dr. Lewis has had 19 PhD and 4 M.S. students and currently has seven PhD students and 26 undergraduates in his lab. His research focuses on spider silk proteins. They identified the proteins for all six of the different silks spiders can make. They constructed synthetic genes that make these proteins in bacteria, goats, alfalfa, and silkworms. The proteins are made into fibers, films, glues, coatings and gels. The goal of this work is to provide a method to produce materials custom designed for strength and elasticity for applications such as ligament and tendon repair, high tech clothing, parachutes, coatings for medial implants, etc. The research done by Dr. Lewis and his team has been featured on Discovery, Nova, BBC and CSI New York.
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