ANN ARBOR—Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc., the developer of “spider silk” textiles through genetic engineering, announced that its subsidiary Prodigy Textiles has signed a new five-year lease on a 50,000-square-foot factory in Quang Nam province, Vietnam.
Company officials, in a press release, said the new factory “is expected to play a major role in supporting the Company’s increasing production capacity of its proprietary recombinant spider silk technologies.”
“Our team in Vietnam, led by Mr. Kenneth Le, has done an excellent job of scouting, selecting, and negotiating the terms of this deal,” said Kraig COO Jon Rice. “With its close proximity to the necessary mulberry fields, and easy access to shipping ports, this facility will serve as a springboard for Kraig Labs introduction of spider silk into the global textile markets.”
Company officials said they expect to begin transferring technology into the larger factory from the temporary facility that Prodigy Textiles has been using since December 2018.
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Kraig has spliced spider genes into silkworms, leading to silkworms that spin cocoons whose fibers have some of the strength properties of spiderweb fibers. Among the first applications of the textiles to be made from these super-strong fibers are protective garments for the military.
