LANSING — Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc. (OTCQB:KBLB) said Monday that silkworm hatchlings from the first stage of its Monster Silk pilot production program have now spun cocoons — and that as expected, the cocoons are made of Monster Silk, the company’s recombinant spider silk.

Kraig has spliced spider genes into silkworms so that the silk of their cocoons have many of the properties of super-strong spiderwebs. The company says the technology could lead to innovative new fabrics.

The program is running in three stages, with stage 1 being the first of the production stages to produce Monster Silk cocoons. The company said Stage 2 of the program is now entering an advanced state and that all three stages are ahead of schedule and are hitting or exceeding their milestones.

“Our focus on innovation and scientific excellence is transitioning well from the laboratory to production, and this ambitious pilot production program is designed to test our systems and to become the basis for large commercial scale production,” said company founder and CEO, Kim K. Thompson. “The pilot production program goals included confirming Monster Silk’s production scalability; to get these results so smoothly is a tremendous boost the company’s expansion plans.”

More at www.KraigLabs.com.