Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[downsideup]

There are already valid methods of testing fibers.

I provided you with a link to the source.

That AMSilk are reporting the tensile strength of their fibers... says they've been tested...

Meanwhile, the PNAS article doesn't make most of the claims being attributed to it here...

It's on line and easy enough to reference:
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/3/923.full?sid=92e9ad65-cd0a-4a8f-ad25-a2c2d2329f28

Highlights include:

"The mechanical properties of the composite silks from the transgenic animals were more variable than those of the parental fibers, and the composite fibers from two different spider 6-GFP lines had similar extensibilities, but different tensile strengths. This variation in the mechanical properties of composite silk fibers within an individual transgenic line and among different lines probably reflects heterogeneity in the fibers due to differences in chimeric silkworm/spider silk protein ratios and/or the localization of these proteins along the fiber."

Further, the claim that "Furthermore, these best-case measurements showed that the composite fiber from spider 6-GFP, line 4, was tougher than the native spider dragline silk fiber tested under identical conditions." appears it is NOT properly validated by their own presentation of the data: http://www.pnas.org/content/109/3/923/F4.small.gif


The abstract probably encapsulates the issues with the FOCUS in the first two lines: "The development of a spider silk-manufacturing process is of great interest. However, there are serious problems with natural manufacturing through spider farming, and standard recombinant protein production platforms have provided limited progress due to their inability to assemble spider silk proteins into fibers."

I will grant that KBLB's approach is probably superior to an approach focused on trying to start ranching spiders. I'd be surprised if anyone other than academics were ever going to consider that as being a valid point of comparison in methods.

The issue with the second part "standard recombinant protein production platforms have provided limited progress due to their inability to assemble spider silk proteins into fibers"... is what AMSilk has just proved wrong... by showing they can spin fibers from precursors.

AMSilk's recent announcement... blows the PNAS articles premises out of the water... as "inability to assemble spider silk proteins into fibers"... is now wrong.

The ABILITY to assemble spider silk proteins into fibers... has now been proven... and that changes everything.