Genetic Engineering: The Solution to Mass Produced Spider Silk

The key components of spider silk are spider in proteins, encoded by spider in genes. Researchers have been using genetic engineering techniques to insert spider in genes into more biddable organisms that will churn out silk proteins to order. One idea is to produce spider in E. coli bacteria, which can be easily grown up in bulk in the lab. Professor Randy Lewis at Utah State University has created a breeding colony of around 30 spider goats for large-scale silk farming.