Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[Eskaminagaga]

Hi CK,

I agree that Kim has likely been breeding his silkworms so far, but it would still take several generations to breed enough to supply a major apparel company enough for a product line. That combined with the cross breeding, tossing out the worms that either do not have the colored eyes (genetic marker for spider silk genes) or are not of commercial size leaving only about half of the offspring viable, and repeat this process a couple more times to ensure there is enough genetic variability and you have enough to start scaling up. The only downside to that is the two month life-cycle of the silkworm that you need to wait for each generation. That is the time consuming part as I am sure you are aware of.

I do agree that Kim should, at some point, look into other platforms to create spider silk proteins. The cost to produce transgenic bacteria and yeast might be high currently, but it will drop as the technology improves and likely eventually surpass the transgenic silkworm as the cheaper method. Kim stated in the conference call that he is open to other methods, but going that route takes a lot more starting funds and skilled workers, so it is probably not the best thing to pursue until KBLB becomes profitable.