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Nexia and US Army spin the worlds first man-made spider silk performance fibers

process that has been perfected through 400 million years of evolution. Using these water-based BioSteel solutions for large-scale fiber spinning would be con-siderably more environmentally friendly than using harsh solvents such as those used for most synthetic fiber manufacturing.

"Second, the material from mammalian cells was spun into fibers with significant toughness. Scientists have been successful in producing spider silk proteins in bacteria and yeast in the past, but for a number of reasons, have been unable to spin fibers with appreciable properties. Now with the availability of mammalian-derived BioSteel fibers, we can begin to optimize the spinning process in order to tailor BioSteel properties for a wide range of applications. We are grateful to the US Army team at Natick and our other collaborators for their expert guidance in this project," added Dr. Karatzas.

Dragline silk, which comprises the radiating spokes of a spider web, exhibits a combination of strength and toughness unmatched by high-performance synthetic fibers. Dragline silk is three times tougher than aramid fibers and five times as strong, by weight, as steel. Dragline silk is composed of proteins with multiple repetitive sequence blocks that impart its mechanical properties. Spiders can be coaxed to make silk, but attempts to create "spider farms" have failed because of the territorial nature of spiders.

BioSteel is eco-friendly both in terms of its composition and its production process. As opposed to most other synthetic fibers, BioSteel is expected to be biodegradable over time in the presence of water making it a promising material for such applications as medical sutures and fishing lines. Additionally, the aqueous production process has the potential to be non-polluting and environmentally friendly in contrast to the manufacturing of other synthetic fibers.

"Its incredible that a tiny animal found literally in your backyard can create such a
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Contact: Jeffrey Turner, PhD
jturner@nexiabiotech.com
450-424-8910
Nexia Biotechnologies Inc.
17-Jan-2002


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