Transgenic Production of Spider Silk

Patent Number:

Patent Pending

Inventor(s) :

Herrera, Rene;

Coll, Jose;

Almagro, Juan

For more information, contact:

Dr. Susan Webster, Director

Office of Intellectual Property Management

Phone: 305-348-0008

Email: websters@fiu.edu

Scientists at FIU have successfully produced a gene construct, called the Spiworm gene, which includes the beginning and end of the Bombyx mori silk worm fibroin gene, and approximately seven hundred base pairs of repetitive elements from the central portion of the silk gene from the spider Nephila clavipes. The FIU Scientists are currently in the process of performing quality assurance analyses on the silk produced by transgenic silk worms that have incorporated the gene construct and are expressing the recombinant silk. The next immediate goal of the researchers is to construct new variants of the Spiworm gene for embryonic microinjections and test a range of silk properties including tensile strength, weight and durability.

return to FIU Technology Available for Licensing