For decades, scientists and entrepreneurs have fantasized about creating lab-grown spider silk. Only a few companies have been able to do it
or decades, scientists and entrepreneurs have fantasized about creating lab-grown spider silk, which is renowned for its strength and softness. Slowly, a few companies have emerged that are able to do it. AMSilk, a German company founded in 2008, is one of them.
Spider silk without the spiders: AMSilk CEO Jens Klein and chief science officer Lin Römer; a flask of silk powder; a prototype shoe for Adidas. Unlike silkworms, spiders can’t be farmed, because they are territorial and cannibalistic. Proponents of growing spider silk in a lab hope to get the advantages of its strength and softness and also to have an alternative to silkworm silk, which requires the death of thousands of silkworm cocoons. They also hope that lab-grown silk, which is biodegradable, can ultimately replace materials like polyester that are made with petrochemicals and harm the environment.
A core of AMSilk’s business is selling its lab-grown silk gels and powders to cosmetics companies, which use silk additives to give skin products their glow and shampoo its shine. Along with more than $30 million in funding, this gives it the cash flow to pursue riskier projects, such as a deal it signed last year with Airbus to develop a
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