Replies to post #79634 on Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[TRUISM]

To demonstrate the commercial feasibility for machine reeling, weaving, and sewing, we used the transgenic spider silk to weave a vest and scarf; this was the first application of spider silk fibers from transgenic silkworms.

Figure 6. Raw silks and a woven vest and scarf knitted from transgenic spider silks.
(A) Reeled raw silks of C515, C515-SpA1, and C515-SpA2 are shown. (B) A vest and scarf made by a knitting machine using C515-SpA2 to demonstrate the commercial possibilities of transgenic spider silk. Cocoons of C515-SpA2 were reeled by a reeling machine, woven, dyed, and knitted.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105325.g006




TRUTH

[ZincFinger]

Sadly this is clearly not KBLB's work: none of the scientists are among those known to work with KBLB nor are any of the institutions listed. In addition the tool used for the genetic modifications is not either one of those used by KBLB (the piggyBac transposon and zinc fingers).

I suspect that the 53% increase in TOUGHNESS (which is the critical measure!) eclipses KBLB's figures (unless Big Red was far superior to Monster Silk - but if so why hadn't that been PRed? KBLBs had the equipment to test it for many months now).

Even if KBLB can compete with this, the competition is almost certain to really drive down the profit margin.

KBLB was just too slow, IMHO.

[first mike]

Interesting!
These authors may or may not have some connection to Spiber (JP).
This paper describes an investigation that seems to duplicate the work done by the university researchers associated with KBLB and published in the PNAS article more than a year ago.

As KBLB / UND already has patent protection for this process, it is unlikely that any commercial venture will come from this research.

Remember that to publish a scientific paper one only needs to satisfy the journal editors and reviewers that the work is sufficiently novel and significant to be worth publication.
When it is work done by Japanese researchers at a Japanese facility and funded by the Japan government such barriers to publication in a Japanese Journal are significantly lowered.

Regarding tensile strength improvement. The numbers quoted in this paper for the best samples are very similar to the numbers given in the PNAS paper. (TS of spider drag line silk = 200% that of standard Bombyx mori silk, TS of transgenic silk =150%)

It is likely that KBLB's current MS is better than that but numbers have not been specifically stated.
KBLB's BR has been stated to be near 200%.

Conclusion:
A well written article about a good, if unoriginal, research project, But KBLB / UND / UW hold the patents on this process and product and exclusive licenses for the use of much better and more versatile tools than those used by these researchers.

Mike L.

[Eskaminagaga]

Vest And Scarf Made From Spider Silk

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/vest-and-scarf-made-spider-silk

This silk scarf and vest have a nice drape and pretty color, but that's not why everyone here at Popular Science covets them. No, we're wishing they were ours because they're made of super-strong, transgenic spider silk. Functional and good-looking! Our favorite.

The clothes were woven from silk produced by silkworms with a spider gene engineered into them. A mix of spider and silkworm proteins actually emerges from the spinners in the silkworms' mouths. The resulting hybrid material is made up of less than 1 percent spider proteins, yet it's 53 percent tougher than regular silk, according to the research team, five scientists from Japan's National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences and Shinshu University.

Scientists have long known spider-silk proteins are exceptionally strong. Dragline silk, the stuff spiders use to make the spokes of their webs and to dangle creepily from ceilings, is five times stronger than an equal-sized thread of steel would be. Researchers have thought about using spider silk for everything from surgical thread to bulletproof vests. There's no reason to make a cute scarf from spider silk, of course, but the Japanese team members wanted to demonstrate they could harvest their product and feed it into the same machines silk factories use.

Why not get the silk directly from spiders, instead of it putting it through a silkworm first? Spiders don't make a lot of silk at once and they're cannibalistic, so it's hard to maintain a spider farm. Silkworms, on the other hand, have been domesticated over thousands of years. They produce voluminous silk cocoons and they're easy to raise indoors. A silkworm that makes spider proteins could be a gentle little biological silk factory, spinning out a super-strong product.

In recent years, a number of labs have created genetically engineered silkworms that spin part-spider silk. However, this is the first time we've seen anybody produce and harvest enough of the material to weave it into something wearable.

In this research, scientists made copies of the genetic code for one dragline protein from Araneus ventricosus spiders. The researchers inserted the copies into the DNA of Japanese silkworms. They performed genetic tests on their worms to show the caterpillars truly did have spider genes and they performed strength tests on the raw silk.

Eventually, they made enough engineered silkworms that they were ready to kill the worms in their cocoons, harvest the silk, dye the silk threads, and knit the threads into cloth, just like silk factories do.

The researchers are now planning to try to raise their genetically engineered silkworms at commercial farms, the Japan Times reports. They published their scientific work last week, in the journal PLOS One.