Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[ZincFinger]

No, KBLB only received the zinc fingers on June 10, less than 2 months ago. (Kim said at one point that it took 6 months to work out an agreement with SIAL for the zinc fingers, then SIAL had to make and ship them. That's where the extra time went.

The ZF modified worms should already be in the cocoon stage by now but we'll probably have to wait until the moths emerge for the silk to be tested. (You don't want to risk harming the worm by removing silk before the moth emerges. Silk is unraveled by chemically dissolving the "glue" that holds the cocoons together or boiling it off, neither of which is particularly good for the worm and if you need it to breed, that's a problem!).

Sometime around mid-August probably.

Note: Kim said to expect results in the Fall. This round of modifications could take two generations rather than just one, depending on how they want to do it. If so, what we hear in mid August may be interim results:

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS *NOT* A NEWS RELEASE BUT AN APPROXIMATION OF WHAT ONE MAY COVER:

[[[[something like: we have used the zinc fingers to add a spider silk protein gene to the same location as the worm silk protein gene in a large commercial silkworm. We believe that this location will achieve superior results to the location achieved in the gen1 Monster Silk worms and the large commercial worm is a superior worm to have it in. This silk is mixed spider and worm silk and is superior in quality to the gen1 Monster Silk. In the next round of ZF modifications we will delete the worm silk protein gene that should result in the worms producing pure spider silk. ]]