ANN ARBOR, Mich. — October 12, 2023 — Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc., the biotechnology company focused on the development and commercialization of spider silk, today announced that it hired key scientists from the University of Notre Dame (UND) spider silk research lab following the retirement of Dr. Malcolm Fraser, Professor Emeritus. Onboarding their expertise and blending it with the company’s R&D operations has created significant synergies in both molecular biology and sericulture.
This merger of Kraig Labs operations with significant elements, including scientific personnel, from the UND Fraser Lab comes after more than a decade of close collaboration between Kraig Labs and the University that created the Company’s first spider silk transgenics, including Monster Silk® and Dragon Silk®.
The core technologies initially envisioned by the company’s Founder and CEO, Kim Thompson, were first driven to practice in the UND labs, creating the first recombinant silkworms spinning spider silk. Following that success, the Company opened its R&D headquarters and has been advancing the state of spider silk transgenics utilizing the latest gene editing technologies.
Integrating members from the UND spider silk research program into Kraig Labs’ R&D operations further strengthens the Company’s expertise and leading role in commercializing cost-effective and eco-responsible spider silk manufacturing.
“I’m very excited to see the continuation of the groundbreaking work in recombinant spider silk that was developed in my lab at Notre Dame,” said Dr. Fraser. “The merger of these two teams holds great promise for the future spider silks. Our collaborations over the last decade have created incredible advancements in recombinant spider silk and transgenic silkworms. I am delighted to see Kraig Labs beefing up its team and increasing the depth of its sericulture expertise as it prepares for larger scale production of spider silk,” continued Dr. Fraser.
The company continues to develop new and exciting spider silk technologies utilizing its readily scalable silkworm-based production model. The effect of merging these two industry-leading operations is expected to advance next-generation transgenics development rapidly and strengthen the company’s international production operations.
“From my initial development of these concepts to our collaboration with Notre Dame and the resulting scientific breakthroughs, we have had one clear vision: large-scale production and commercialization of spider silks,” Thompson said. “At each stage in this process we have faced unique hurdles. Now, as we work to achieve larger-scale production of spider silks, we are harnessing the opportunity to expand our team with scientists from the Fraser Lab with a proven history of success in spider silk development. We are proud to announce that we are fully integrating key members of Fraser’s spider silk program into our operations. This has given us a tremendous needed boost to our operations as we prepare for the successful relaunch of spider silk production.”
Posted: October 12, 2023
Source: Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc.
