PNAS
Interesting read. They are on the tracks, but not the right ones. It is interesting that they gauge success by protein metric weight and not strength.
"These results indicated that the MaSp1 chimeric fiber had increased extensibility but decreased strength."
Secreted? By the chimeric silkworm or humans?
"Abundant MaSp1 protein was detected in cocoon shells of both MaSp1+/- and MaSp1+/+ animals (Fig. 5), suggesting that chimeric MaSp1 was secreted into the cocoon shell."
ECNS
The ECNS article is largely a forward looking statement. No doubt they have made more progress since writing though. This is a goo method or artificial. If you follow through to the Nature Communications article, you learn....
"The fibres exhibit tensile strength of 895 MPa, stretchability of 44.3%, modulus of 28.7 GPa, high toughness of 370 MJ m?3, and damping capacity of 95%, which display comparable mechanical properties to the natural spider silk."
So this has .895 Gpa in strength, but again since it is an artificial means, you are looking at more expensive ways to get the higher weighted proteins separated. It does not appear to be a green answer for sustainability either. Decent properties though.
I still wonder how the ion doping/implantation process might effect our silk.
Good to see we could very well know when they are getting close to achieving what we've done. You can't rule out the possibility of a surprise though either.
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