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USU biologist Dr. Justin Jones explains how hagfish slime proteins could lead to sustainable textiles and new treatments for eye disease, and why 20 years of "failed" spider silk research made it all possible.

Though hagfish might not be the prettiest creatures in the ocean, their slime may be one of the most useful things in materials science. In this episode, host Thomas Sorenson talks with Dr. Justin Jones, a Utah State University biologist who spent more than 20 years trying to mass-produce spider silk before a call from the U.S. Navy changed his lab's direction.

Dr. Jones explains how hagfish slime contains protein fibers nearly as strong as spider silk, and how his lab's bacteria-based process produces hundreds of times more protein than spider silk ever allowed. That breakthrough has led to a startup, a path toward silk-like clothing fibers finer than merino wool, and a USU collaboration building a model of the human eye's Bruch's membrane to study age-related macular degeneration. Along the way, he talks about learning from failure, celebrating the wins, and why a university lab in landlocked Utah ended up working with the Navy.