Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[silkmaster]

The Race to Put Silk in Nearly Everything
June 28 2021 via wired website:
https://www.wired.com/story/the-race-to-put-silk-in-nearly-everything/

"A separate venture, Michigan-based Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, has banked on the hope of spider-silk-spun-via-silkworm since the early 2000s. Last year, they developed a new technique to make custom silks. Silkworm DNA normally instructs cells to make a protein consisting of one “heavy chain” capped by two much smaller chains. Kraig Labs’ “knock-in, knock-out'' tech gives the silkworm’s genetic machinery new instructions, essentially overwriting the previous recipe, replacing that heavy silkworm chain with a tougher spidery alternative. “The world knows how to make silk. We've been doing it for four millennia,” says Jon Rice, Kraig Labs’ COO. “All we're doing is changing the recipe.”

"Kraig Labs claims to have produced the first “nearly pure” spider silk fabricated by silkworms and has scaled up production. It has partnered with a company in Singapore to make luxury street wear and is working with Polartec on performance outerwear. The company is also considering biomedical uses and bullet-resistant protective apparel"