Spider silk-based fibre manufacturer Kraig Biocraft Laboratories has completed the first genetic in-process screening of silkworms at its site in Vietnam. The company’s subsidiary, Prodigy Textiles, launched in 2018 and is reported to have gone from strength to strength, with Kraig citing the country’s “optimal layout” and “existing infrastructure” in the silk sector as two intrinsic factors to why it launched the firm.
In January, the company announced that it’d taken receipt of new equipment to support onsite testing and screening of its transgenic technologies at the Vietnamese facility. That’s now been applied to help Prodigy execute its first screening. Previously, samples had to be shipped back to Kraig’s headquarters in Michigan to conduct such tests, but that’s now possible in Vietnam, streamlining its production. In 2019, Prodigy enjoyed a record-breaking month for production, surpassing quantities that had been produced over 10 years in Michigan in just 31 days.
“Transferring this screening technology to Prodigy was the final element needed for our operations team in Vietnam to complete scaling up output to match our facility capacity,” said COO Jon Rice. “With our lab team at Prodigy taking over this crucial testing, I believe our team in Vietnam is now ready to boost monthly silk production targets by 20-50 times current levels.”
