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Genetically engineered goats produce super-strong spider silk
photo by Douglas Sprott (Flickr CC)
Freckles the goat is part spider. Her milk is loaded with spider silk protein. The silk from Freckles has potential uses in medicine (as a ligament replacement), is stronger than Kevlar and extremely elastic.
So why not just harvest the silk from spiders?
Spiders can’t be farmed because they are cannibalistic, while goats have been farmed for 10,000 years or so. Genetically engineered ‘spider goats’ also produce vast amounts of spider silk in their milk when compared to tiny golden orb spiders.
Freckles is the creation of Randy Lewis, a professor of genetics at Utah State University. The farm is a university outpost where they research modern farming techniques, teach animal husbandry and raise what are inevitably referred to as “spider-goats”.Randy, like many of the other scientists here in Logan, Utah, has farming in his blood. So although a creature that is part goat, part spider might seem like an idea born of science fiction, as far as Randy is concerned it’s simply advanced farming: breeding animals to produce things that we want.
–Observer
Other advances in synthetic biology include a living cell with a genetic code assembled by a computer, creating glowing bacteria by using fluorescent proteins from phosphorescent jellyfish and the production of synthetic biodiesel from brewer’s yeast.
Read more in the Observer and the Canadian Press.
Goats are not alone in producing super-strong silk. Silk worms have also been genetically crossed with spiders to produce silk that is 48% stronger than normal silk and has 61% of the strength of spider silk, which is already stronger than steel.
Read more on that story in the Christian Science Monitor.
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Sorry, but what warped imagination could have come up with the idea of creating a being part goat part spider? I’d rather stick my own ligaments (even if they stop functioning so well) than have any ligament replacement from this source. There also raises issues over rights of animals – I don’t suppose the goat had any say in that she was turned into? Indeed the answer is above: “breeding animals to produce the things that we want”, in other words, exploiting them.
I understand what you mean, the risk here is that , this kind of breakthroughs are not showing its full blown potential yet as well as the damages it could create. there’s still a big gap between the conventional and the artificial . in conventional the process is always longer , the risk is lower but can’t expect a much result. In artificial it’s basically a shortcut of all the process that should be undergone. the risk is much higher but the result could be incredibly far more than the expected. So it’s up to us how ready we are to face consequences when we dared to be out- of the – box ….
A bit Frankenstein-ish to genetically engineer goats to harvest medical materials. I see the advantages too, but isn’t going too far? Should we be messing with animals in this way? OK, it’s just milk, and the goats are supposedly not being harmed, but there are serious ethical and practical questions concerning this kind of stuff. Nor do we know the potential consequences of creating new breeds like these
another thing why ligaments has something to do with rheumatoid arthritis? simply because as we grow older especially for women the ligaments becomes thinner, stiff so it causes friction to the joints and later on swell. rheumatoid arthritis is the inflammation of the connecting tissue also known as ‘ligaments’……..
That’s absolutely interesting. I’m quite happy that they’ve found a ligament substitute coz that would be a definite help for slip disc, severe arthritis, rheumatoid and other bone and muscle cases. Just an added info ‘ligament’ is a band of tough ,fibrous tissue that connects bones or cartilages at a joint or supporting the organ…In the past they’ve usually used a ‘titanium’ for ligament replacement which of course is a very far from the characteristic of the real ligament…Some of the athletes, especially basketball players whom undergone knee surgery it’s actually or more often a ligament issue and after the surgery the player would be on a rehab with the help of a physical therapist to help him get use of the new ligament, so it means this goat spider thing is such a breakthrough , a lot for sure will benefit from it especially the orthopedics…..