

A Bay Area Startup Spins Lab-Grown Silk - mnemonik
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-03/a-bay-area-startup-spins-lab-grown-silk

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rmason
Yet another bonus of genetic engineering.

Just waiting for the first protesters decrying FrankenCloth and carrying
pictures of giant spiders ;<).

[https://coconutcreamcare.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/frknfoo...](https://coconutcreamcare.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/frknfood.jpg)

~~~
the8472
Genetic engineering of microorganisms carefully maintained in bioreactors and
probably not competitive with their wild variants is not quite the same as
letting them grow on fields.

While one shouldn't categorically deny manipulation of crops at least the risk
assessment should be more stringent than for lab-grown yeast.

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toufka
The fun thing is this is a designed fabric. There are very few other designed
materials designed in this way. Kevlar, nylon and those such things come to
mind as designed from chemistry up - miracles of the chemistry of the '50s &
60s. This is different in that the design is done using a much more
standardized and modifiable plan - genetics.

A huge difference, is these fabrics are protein based, and as such, can have
productive & useful variants made simply by changing the genetic code from
which they were produced; monumentally easier than researching nylon into
kevlar, chemically.

This is an entirely different R&D schedule. And the bounds are what can be
found in nature. It's not so much that they can produce spider silk, but that
they can relatively intelligently direct their efforts to produce spider silk
that also does <insert biological property here>.

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rmason
Yet another bonus of genetic engineering.

Just waiting for the first protesters decrying FrankenCloth and carrying
pictures of giant spiders ;<).

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aetherson
Sounds cool and everything, but this is one of those perpetually five-years-
off technologies.

~~~
exacube
Someone needs to do it first

~~~
aetherson
Sure. It's just that until and unless they have a manufacturing process that
can produce at least, I don't know, hundreds of actual products a week, we
should be a little skeptical that they'll succeed where lots of people have
failed.

If the timeline of a technology looks like:

\-----------------------------------+++++++++++>

Where the -'s are failures and the +'s are successes, then there are a lot
more points that aren't the first plus than that are.

~~~
smokinn
"Bolt is working with manufacturing partners such as the Michigan
Biotechnology Institute in Lansing, which will do larger-scale fermentation in
4,000-liter tanks using Bolt’s process, and Unifi, a yarn manufacturer based
in Greensboro, N.C., which will spin Bolt’s fibers into apparel-ready yarn and
textiles."

From the article it seems like they're already partnering with established
firms to scale up their process. So I doubt this is "perpetually five-years-
off" if they have already have partners on board implementing their process.

~~~
jorions
Totally agreed. While this article isn't completely clear on whether complete
fabrics have yet been produced, the nature of the relationships these guys are
forming with other companies certainly seems to imply that they have some
semi-viable or completely viable materials already produced. A year or more
before they have a product to market doesn't mean it will be that long until
they have perfected the process, but rather that is how long until they hop
through the numerous hoops involved with contracts, branding, marketing, and
distribution. And the founders are spot on - these sorts of things always
start as expensive, small batch items. It doesn't mean it's not able to be
scaled, just that it hasn't been yet.

Also, there is actually already a precedent for clothing being "grown" with
bacteria, including specifically yeast
([http://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/12/movie-biocouture-
microbes-c...](http://www.dezeen.com/2014/02/12/movie-biocouture-microbes-
clothing-wearable-futures/)). Seems to me that the unique thing in this
instance is the nature of the finished material - they were initially being
funded by the military so these fabrics may be more "high performance" than
their current yeast-grown counterparts. Either way given that there are
multiple efforts to take these products to market I would not say that it is a
pipe dream to commercialize on a large scale.

~~~
the8472
_> they were initially being funded by the military so these fabrics may be
more "high performance"_

This isn't genuine spider silk though, if it had comparable performance they
would certainly state so in interviews. The military probably is interested in
"kevlar or better", which spider silk itself promises but has so far proved to
be elusive.

Competing with regular clothing fiber such as cotton is a lower bar.

