What the PNAS publication validated was that KBLB/ND/UW have genetically modified silkworms so that they incorporate spider silk protein into the structure of their silk. That's the hard part, the part that everyone thought was impossible. The rest will be just a series of advances and improvements on that basic achievement.
It's the equivalent of when the Wright brothers made their first flight: what they had done was only a very short, low flight. But it demonstrated that powered controlled flight was possible in heavier than air machines. From that point on, further advancement was a steady series of small steps that were vastly easier than the original achievement. These small steps could not have been made without the original achievement as a starting point.
The world did not celebrate the small advances. What it celebrated was the initial flight because that's what showed that the rest was possible (and inevitable once the initial flight had been achieved.)
KBLB has done the "first flight" with the silkworm and that was validated by the PNAS study. What it's working on now is the series of advances that will lead to a commercial product just as the further advances on that first airplane eventually led to commercial aircraft.
Actually the contribution of the Wright brothers was FAR greater than merely flying! Their BIG achievement was the concept of a systematic and organized approach to technological development where the critical problems were identified (in the case of the airplane,the method of control was the really critical element) and then broken down into possible approaches, each broken down into individual components and systematic experiments done on each one, etc. And for each part of each component a systematic search was done for the best material, configuration etc. Individual components were separated from the whole and tested separately in special setups like wind tunnels,etc. This was a complete break from what was done in the past and has become the fundamental concept that has driven our technologies because it so reliably produces good results.
Consistently the "hard part" of new achievements is the "proof of principle". Once that has been achieved,the rest consists of a series of advances and improvements and is routine compared to the proof of principle.
In the case of the airplane, the proof of principle was achieved in 1902 BEFORE the first powered flight. The real problem was how to control an aircraft and that was well established by the glider flights of 1902. (The first patents Wilbur and Orville Wright received on the airplane were on the control system and had nothing to do with the power system.)
KBLB's "proof of principle" was getting silkworms to structurally incorporate spider silk protein in their silk in a manner that resulted in an improvement of its qualities. And THAT was what was validated by the PNAS study. The fact that further advances have since been made in no way detracts from the fundamental importance of that event.
WHAT KBLB IS DOING IS MODIFYING THIS APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSGENIC ANIMALS TO PRODUCE COMPLEX PRODUCTS (not merely individual proteins for extraction as in the past).
The public considers the first powered flight as the groundbreaking achievement because that's what grabbed their imaginations. KBLB will probably be remembered for spider silk rather the the introduction of transgenic animals producing complex materials for much the same reason. But just as the first controlled GLIDE was the real groundbreaking achievement of the Wright Brothers and what enabled all the rest,so the first silkworm to structurally incorporate spider silk protein in its silk was the groundbreaking achievement that will enable KBLB's production of custom fibers in the silkworm. But spider silk is probably what will be remembered as the big event.
It took several years after that first powered flight before the Wright Brothers had a commercial aircraft. That didn't mean that the first one was a failure, it just meant that a lot of details had to be ironed out.
There are ALWAYS such details.
Much the same thing applies to the KBLB's worms. Some have very unreasonably criticized the company because those first worms did not constitute a market ready product. That's simply not how things work in the real world. It takes time to get a product on the market. It now appears that that time may be about done. Maybe it will take a bit longer. But, sooner or later, it will be done.
It may turn out that a little more work is needed, just as there were still some problems that needed to be ironed out in the airplane once the control problem was solved.
But once they'd solved the control problem, the Wright Brothers had a "lock" on the airplane: because they, and only they, had a solution to the critical and difficult part of the problem. So after that point their ultimate success was pretty inevitable.
The same thing applies to KBLB: Getting silkworms to incorporate SSP in their silk was the difficult critical part of the problem. The rest is just details to be worked out on the road to commercialization. It may be at hand now or it may take a little longer.
Whether the step to "pure" fibers having no WSP has already been achieved or not will mean little in the long run: Monster Silk could be a product before that step is reached. If the 2nd round has not achieved that step,then the platform worms that result and the platform worms from round 1 will both serve as very effective tools for rapid advancement. Whether that advancement comes in the form of a big leap to complete removal of all WSP from the fibers or a series of incremental reductions means little in the long term. It took many years to get from propeller airplanes to jets. But all the steps along the way served us very well.
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