Genetically Modified Goats
Spiders Goats
Background Information
Researchers from the University of Wyoming, headed by Randy Lewis, found a way to incorporate Spider's silk-spinning genes into goats.
Researchers want to find a way to better produce spider silk. Spider silk is 20 times stronger than steel while being much more flexible. When they tried to farm spiders, they would kill each other. To solve this problem, they mixed genes from gold orb-weaver spiders into farm goats and planned to harvest it from their milk.
Pros of Silk producing goats.
- Goats will produce larger amounts of silk than spiders.
- Medical uses associated with the silk include fixing eys structures, jaw repair, and the making of artificial ligaments and tendons.
- Also used in bullet proof vest and air bags.
- There are no noticeable affects of the goat from the gene.
Current Status
Today, the goats are producing spider silk, so this experiment worked. But, they don't have enough goats yet to produce and substantial amount of silk. As of 2010, there are only 35 spider goats.