Spiders produce up to seven different types of silk, each with distinct mechanical properties.
Mechanical characterization, network modelling and molecular cloning are some of the approaches we have been using to understand the nature of these protein super-fibers. Paul graduated in 1997 Guerette, P.A., 1997. The Mechanical Properties of Spider Silk are determined by the genetic regulation of fibroin proteins and chemical and physical processing during spinning , PhD Thesis, University of British Columbia, Canada.