Germany

Although Germany is nowadays not the place of silkworm rearing there is a long tradition beginning in the 17th century. To the middle of 20th century Germany still had some silkworm rearing units in the Eastern part.Thus, a team of joint scientist and enthusiasts recently is trying to revive this industry beginning with sericulture promotion by establishment of a “Living silk museum” in Dresden as a first step and also start using the silkworm in the research programmes of the University of Dresden. Silk was used to immobilize and embed enzymes for biotechnological applications. In addition recently a project to develop a new "single silk fiber based material" as matrix for cell growth and bone regeneration was started. The German silk group believes that beside its traditional use in cloth production- the biotechnological field will be a future perspective for traditional silk production, so they intend to combine the knowledge of silk production with new silk-based technologies, like medical applications in drug delivery and wound healing or surface modifications for biological sensors.

For contacts:

Dr Udo Krause
Technische Universität Dresden
Institute of Genetics
01062 Dresden
Tel.: +49 (351) 463-35960
Fax : +49 (351) 463-37725
E-Mail: Udo.Krause-Buchholz@tu-dresden.de