# First person – Angela M. Alicea-Serrano

## TL;DR

Angela M. Alicea-Serrano discusses her research on spider silk's strong adhesion across different surfaces.

## Contribution

The study reveals how viscid silk in spider orb webs maintains strong adhesion on surfaces with varying roughness and surface energies.

## Key findings

- Viscid silk adheres strongly across surfaces with different roughness.
- The silk's adhesion is effective on surfaces with varying surface energies.
- This research contributes to understanding spider silk biomechanics and prey capture.

## Abstract

First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Angela M. Alicea-Serrano is first author on ‘
Viscid silk in spider orb webs adheres strongly across surfaces with different roughness and surface energies’, published in BiO. Angela conducted the research described in this article while a PhD candidate in Todd A. Blackledge's lab at The University of Akron, Akron, USA. She is now a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow in biology in the lab of Ali Dhinojwala and Jessica E. Garb at the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, The University of Akron and University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA, investigating how form, function, and environment shape natural materials, with a focus on spider silk biomechanics and its role in prey capture.