Anna Rising

I graduated from the veterinary program at SLU in 2003. After working for a while in the clinical field, I decided to join a PhD program within an EU project aimed at producing artificial spider silk for medical applications. It all began with me putting on adventure gear and heading to South Africa to catch 100 spiders in the wild. Since then, I’ve been captivated by this fascinating and impressive material—and, of course, by the spiders that manage to create it.

In 2007, I earned my PhD. Shortly afterward, we founded Spiber Technologies AB, and I served as CEO of the company from its inception in 2008 until 2012. Since then, I have led a research group at both SLU and Karolinska Institutet. Between 2015 and 2020, I was a member of the Young Academy of Sweden. Since 2018, I have been a professor of Veterinary Medical Biochemistry at SLU and a senior researcher at Karolinska Institutet. As of 2024, I am also a Wallenberg Scholar.

Research and Expertise Area: Biomimetics, regenerative medicine, molecular biotechnology, medical biochemistry

We study the fundamental biology of spider silk to understand how spiders manage the phenomenal task of producing large quantities of protein, keeping these stable in solution for extended periods, and then rapidly converting the proteins into the world’s toughest fiber. Our research has led to a deeper understanding of this process, which formed the basis for developing the first biomimetic process to produce artificial spider silk.

Our fibers are of interest for use in many fields, such as high-performance textiles, the manufacturing of protective gear and sports equipment, and they also appear to be well tolerated by the body. Therefore, we also focus on regenerative medicine (tissue reconstruction). The long-term goal is to be able to replace or restore damaged organs and structures.

Recently, we also discovered that our spider silk proteins form gels when exposed to a temperature of 37°C. This means the material could potentially be injected as a solution and form a gel in place inside the body. Furthermore, through protein engineering, we can modify the spider silk proteins to have different functions (for example, attaching colored proteins or cell-binding proteins), thereby obtaining a material that is bioactive.