Might not be what you think. IMHO what we got Wednesday was a backup filler for what was intended to be a lot more significant news but something wasn't quite ready for it yet.
Because of the PR on Dr Kaplan's appointment I suspect that that something was confirmation of a process for separation of spider silk protein and worm silk protein and that the problem was due to the two proteins sticking together.
Both proteins are bound to have powerful self sticking properties in order for them to form strong silk fibers. Because of their similarity it seems quite possible that they stick to each other as well.
But there is a ready answer: something in spiders and worms keeps the proteins from sticking to each other until they reach the spinarettes. So use that or some close biochemical equivalent to dissolve the cocoons and keep the proteins separate instead of whatever solvent they were using and keep them in that solvent until the separation has been accomplished.
The above is NOT meant so much to be an indication of exactly what happened as it is an indication of the types of relatively minor problems and setbacks that can arise and how they get worked around.
That kind of thing happens more often than not in biology and biotechnology. The public never hears about it, but it's what's responsible for a great deal of the uncertainty of progess in research. Major problems also occur but less frequently. The minor ones are an almost day to day thing.
IMHO. When you are dealing with research of this nature it is highly unrealistic to expect things to always happen on schedule and those who get unduly unset when it doesn't probably won't have much success investing in this area, IMHO.
Also remember that the spider silk protein from Monster Hybrid cocoons was just a way to get pure spider silk protein on the market a little bit sooner. It it turned out to be too difficult to separate the worm from the spider silk protein then it wouldn't make sense to waste too uch time on it because the pure spider silk producing worms will be available soon anyway.
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