Spider Silk With Silk Worms

This is a worthy effort and itappears we will soon have spider silk in commercial volumes to work with.  Medical applications are obvious, butwhenever a new material becomes readily available, applications mushroom.   And yes a woven line is an obviousapplication with plenty of utility.

Certainly the commercial silkindustry is well established and is ready to introduce a new product in highvolume.  We do not have to invent thatalso.

We can expect fabrics rather quicklyand their abilities will be interesting to observe.

Spider-silk-producing silkworms to be commercially developed

By BenCoxworth

11:18 April 13, 2011

Biotech firm Sigma Life Science plans on developinggenetically-modified silkworms, that will produce spider silk for use incommercial applications

(Photo: Fastily)

http://www.gizmag.com/spider-silk-producing-silkworms-to-be-commercially-developed/18387/

Although cobwebs may seem very fragile when we see people like Indiana Jones crashingthrough them, the fact is that spider silk is an incredibly strong and flexiblematerial. It has a tensile strength similar to that of high-grade steel whileonly being one-fifth as dense, it can stretch up to 1.4 times its relaxedlength without breaking, and it can maintain those properties down to atemperature of -40C (-40F). Given that spiders don't secrete huge quantities ofthe stuff on a daily basis, however, what's a biotech firm to do if it wishesto harvest the fibers for use in human technology? In the case of Sigma LifeScience, it's getting genetically-modified silkworms to spin spider silk.

Sigma has partnered with Kraig Biocraft Laboratories (KBLB) to developthe silkworms, using Sigma's proprietary CompoZr Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology.

Last year, KBLB successfully created hybrid silkworms with randomlyinserted spider genes. The creatures secreted hybrid "spidersilkworm"silk, that was stronger and more durable than silk from regular silkworms, butstill not as strong as spider silk.

Utilizing the claimed precise gene targeting and high efficiency of theZFN process,KBLB and Sigma now plan on inserting spider silk genes into thesilkworm genome, while simultaneously removing the native silkworm silk genes.The result, the companies hope, will be transgenic silkworms that produce purespider silk "at commercially viable production levels."

The material may be used in applications such as sutures, tendon and ligamentrepair, bulletproof vests, and automobile airbags.