China has made a major breakthrough in the research and development of black widow spider silk technology!
China National Silk Technology Group ZJJX recently revealed that the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, ZJCS Super Silk Technology, has improved the performance of silkworm silk through the genetic combination of the silkworm and black widow spider. At present, technological breakthroughs have been made, and the strength of the cultivated silkworm silk is stronger than that of ordinary silk. 3.86 times stronger, reaching the international advanced level. ZJJX has become the only listed company in China with technical reserves and rapid mass production capabilities in terms of super bionic spider silk.
The industry believes that the invention of super bionic spider silk, like the discovery of Ming nylon by the chemical giant DuPont in 1930, will bring a far-reaching revolution to the textile industry. In the future, bionic silk will become the mainstream of the industry, and the application of technology in the textile field has a potential trillion-level market.
Super bionic silk "black technology" will affect the trillion market
The silkworm spider super bionic silk is a kind of protein silk fiber material. "Its tensile strength is comparable to steel, but it is much lighter, and its tensile performance is comparable to rubber bands." Because of its excellent performance, it can be widely used in military products. (Body armor, parachutes, torpedo interception nets, etc.) and biomedical products (artificial tendons, ligaments, heart valves, tissue repairs, etc.), high-strength structures and composite materials (sports equipment, fishing nets, hulls, airplanes, ropes, cables, etc.) .
As early as 2018, the US Army began testing bulletproof "Spiderman suits" made of genetically modified silk. In the same year, the American biotechnology startup Bolt Threads, the manufacturer of synthetic spider silk, announced the completion of a $123 million Series D financing. After seven years of research, Bolt Threads has made significant progress in the research and development of synthetic spider silk. The company combines genetically modified yeast, water and sugar, and transforms it into raw silk through fermentation.
This time, the silkworm spider super bionic silk developed by ZJCS does not use simple synthetic extraction technology, but a more difficult and more widely applied downstream genetic modification technology. It is the world's only successful introduction of black widow spider drag silk gene and obtained A bionic silk with excellent mechanical properties.
To put it simply, the black widow spider gene is directly introduced into the silkworm body, and the silkworm re-spins the silk. The silk spit out is no longer fragile, and has stronger toughness and strength than steel, and is lighter, thinner, and thinner. soft.
ZJJX said that it has successfully obtained a variety of black widow spider drag silk silkworm species, the maximum stress has reached 818MPa, which is 3.86 times higher than silk, which is close to spider silk; the maximum strain reaches 44%, which is 2.2 times higher than silk, and exceeds spider silk. . ZJCS has obtained multiple spider-like silkworm species such as grape gland silk, flag gland silk, poly gland silk and pear gland silk.
Bionic silk has been put on line for experiment and is ready for mass production
It is reported that ZJCS has obtained three national invention patents for the “method of synthesizing and secreting black widow spider drag silk protein using the silk gland bioreactor of the Bombyx mori”.
At present, the super-spun raw silk has been tested on the production line of the company's factory, including testing the toughness, strength, lightness, and softness of its fabrics, and will gradually enter the market in the future.
Industry insiders pointed out that in the military field, supportive military uniforms made of bionic silk silkworm spiders can support the weight of injured soldiers, and the uniforms themselves are extremely light. Bionic silk body armor can effectively block bullets, thereby providing combatants with a more relaxed and comfortable alternative to traditional protective clothing.
In the field of biomedicine, the subversive nature of ZJCS’s technology is that it introduces the black widow spider drag silk gene into the silkworm’s body to obtain the bionic silk. The bionic silk has the characteristics of high strength and toughness of the black widow spider drag silk. It is pure natural pure animal protein material. Therefore, it can be widely used to make artificial tendons, joints, artificial ligaments, prostheses, sutures, tissue stents, heart valves, etc.
ZJJX has been deeply involved in the silk industry for more than 30 years, and has a complete industrial chain from cocoon harvesting and drying, cocoon silk weaving, printing and dyeing, clothing manufacturing, domestic and foreign sales. It has the conditions for large-scale breeding of black widow transgenic silkworm, and it is also the only company in China that has the ability to rapidly industrialize super-bionic spider silk.
The industry believes that the company possesses the world's top bionic silk black technology, cocoon harvesting and drying, and silk fabric mass production capabilities, which competitors will not be able to surpass within 3 to 5 years. The company will face a vast blue ocean of silk technology in the future. The new technology of black widow bionic silk is highly synergistic with traditional business, which is worth looking forward to.