Genetically Engineered Silk Hits Next Stage Of Production
LANSING -- Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc. said Monday that it is accelerating its pilot production program of super-strength silk as a result of positive initial data from the first stage of the trial.
The acceleration to the second phase of the program is designed to increase production capacity of Monster Silk, the company's recombinant spider silk, by more than tenfold over the first stage.
Kraig's technology has created silkworms with spider genes implanted in them, meaning they spin cocoons out of silk that has the much stronger properties of spider webs. The genetic engineering was pioneered at the University of Wyoming and the University of Notre Dame.
The first phase of the pilot production program for Monster Silk is continuing, even as phase two is being launched. The purpose of the program is to verify scalability and favorable production economics of Monster Silk, to significantly increase production, and to form the basis of large scale commercial production of the company's recombinant spider silks.
"The initial success of the first stage has given us the confidence to accelerate the program," said Kraig founder and CEO Kim Thompson. "We are now well ahead of the schedule that we envisioned even a few weeks ago. This is a critical step forward in the commercializing of our laboratory discoveries. The launching of stage two, which I view as the heart of the pilot production program, is the most exciting and momentous event in the Company's history, second only to our invention of Monster Silk."
