Working through an MOU, announced in November, the company is collaborating with the Institute of Biotechnology - Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (IBT) and Vietnam Sericulture Research Centre (VSRC) to rear and test the first ever recombinant spider silk silkworms in Vietnam. 

The Kraig Labs team, in partnership with its subsidiary, Prodigy Textiles, held a series of meetings with senior members of the IBT and the VSRC to outline the project requirements and to review the facilities selected to raise the first batch of transgenic silkworms.

The Kraig Labs team visited the IBT headquarters and brand-new satellite location, where the team members reviewed IBT’s laboratory capabilities and discussed possible future collaborative research efforts.

The team also spent time at the VSRC headquarters reviewing their rearing processes, discussing the details of the company’s transgenic silkworms, and outlining requirements for hatching the company’s silkworms.

The company’s technology is designed to work hand-in-glove with existing silk production infrastructure, of which and is why the company focused its efforts in Vietnam because of the existing infrastructure and history of silk manufacturing, which would theoretically allow for very rapid expansion of production.  With everything in place, Kraig Labs’ team believes that the company is the verge of a major breakthrough in the commercialisation of spider silk.

“The silk experts of the VSRC, working in partnership with members of our Prodigy Textiles team, will give our expansion in Vietnam a strong foundation,” said COO Jon Rice.  “That expertise, combined with IBT’s facilities and capabilities, should pave the way to success, for this first of its kind effort, and translate into a smooth production scale up.”

www.kraiglabs.com