The Spectacular
Synthesis of
Spider Silk
How bioengineering could bring greater sustainability to the apparel industry .
BY TOM KERTSCHER
THE IDEA THAT ONE DAY the clothes you wear will be made from spider silk , or maybe even mushrooms , might sound very … Californian . You know , a little over-the-top earthy and too good to be true .
But then again , back in the 1950s no one thought a mysterious oil-based fiber would be ubiquitous in clothing . But hey , polyester did pretty well .
For David Breslauer ’ 05 , the co-founder and chief scientific officer at Bolt Threads , a bioengineering company in Emeryville , Calif ., the potential of the spider and the mushroom represent not just another way to make apparel , but a way to bring greater sustainability to the clothing industry .
“ I ’ m hoping to get my materials in your closet ,” Breslauer acknowledges about Bolt , which gained national attention for developing a lab-grown spider silk that was first spun into a necktie and then captured the interest of designer Stella McCartney , who has used the company ’ s materials in her high-profile designs . Bolt Threads has since applied their technology to a variety of product lines and mushroomed into a company that has raised $ 200 million in funding and employs more than 100 people .
“ But really ,” Breslauer says , “ the overall goal is to seek out problematic materials and leverage what nature has evolved over billions of years — which are usually extraordinarily complex and intricate processes — in order to solve the problems in front of us today .”
It wasn ’ t a simple web to weave . But UC San Diego ’ s wide range of courses helped shape Breslauer for what was to come .
“ I had a lot of freedom to explore ,” he says . “ I got both a great education in the humanities and social sciences , as well as the engineering side . That ’ s an invaluable base of knowledge with which to build a business , particularly one at the intersection of fashion , material science , and biotech , which all carry their own challenges . There ’ s a lot of tension in every direction .”
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