Silk fibroin is an extensively investigated biomaterial for its potential in textile, biomedical, photonic, and electronic
applications16,17. Silk fibroin is a structural protein, like collagen, but with a unique feature: it is produced
from the extrusion of an amino-acidic suspension by a living complex organism (while collagen is produced in
the extracellular space by self-assembly of cell-produced monomers). Silk fibroin properties are derived from its