This goal was deeply interconnected with Antonio’s personal life. After having discovered to be affected by a congenital weakness to his ankle ligaments, in 2003 Antonio developed his Materials Engineering Master’s Thesis on designing a prosthesis for the repair of anterior cruciate ligament. While carrying on his studies at Politecnico di Milano, Antonio had the chance to watch a documentary about spider silk and got stunned by its properties. In that moment, something clicked in his mind: “Why not studying silk to produce effective medical devices for regenerative medicine?”. This intuition served as propelling fuel, motivating Antonio to deep dive into the characterization of silk fibroin matrices at Politecnico di Milano thanks also to his thesis tutor Giuliano Freddi, one of the most renowned Italian experts of silk and Head of the laboratory of Biotechnology and Biomaterials of the Experimental Silk Station in Milan.

Antonio and Giuliano’s encounter proved to be an important turning point that led to the production of three-dimensional silk-based scaffolds indented for a variety of clinical indications, initially using silk-based textile structures and later electrospun-silk matrices. Spirit of initiative and knowledge of silk processing technologies allowed them to design several prototypes of fibroin matrices for tissue regeneration, from anterior cruciate ligament, blood vessels, skin and bone repair.

However, the entrepreneurial journey that led to the foundation of the company was not completed until Lorenzo Sala and Gabriele Grecchi joined the initial duo. Lorenzo, Management Engineer with his pragmatic approach and great experience in the healthcare domain, contributed to pave the way of the company's production system. Gabriele, with a career in Credit Suisse and Zcube and a just-accomplished MBA graduate, became part of the team after a first meeting with Antonio during an accelerator program sponsored by a venture capital fund in 2013. Silk Biomaterials was officially established in 2014 at the Innovation Hub in ComoNExT thanks to a grant from Camera di Commercio of Como. In that same year Silk Biomaterials was awarded with the National Prize for Innovation and significant other non-dilutive funding.

In January 2022 after months of hard work, Silk Biomaterials transformed its visual identity, unveiling its new brand name - KLISBio – with new logo and monogram. The rebranding process gave the company the opportunity to redesign its communication, targeting shareholders, the venture capital community, trade associations, KOLs and Life Science professionals together with talents. KLISBio is now a brand fully owned by Silk Biomaterials.

Since its foundation, the company has developed and patented a multidisciplinary technology platform entirely based on Bombyx mori silk fibroin, merging a deep-rooted cultural tradition and know-how with the most advanced technologies creating a highly purified material for biomedical applications. Peripheral nerve injuries, peripheral vascular diseases, bone defects, tendon tears and drug release system are all the therapeutic areas currently covered by the KLISBio’s technology platform.

KLISBio is significantly contributing to healthcare innovation, disrupting the restorative surgical market in several clinical indications by bringing innovation via a truly versatile biocompatible material, robust scientific and chemical expertise and operational excellence.