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Silk producing goats and spiders
- Scientists mix spider DNA with goat embyros to produce special silk proteins
... scientists have genetically modified goats with spider DNA to secrete spider silk in their milk.
'Spider goats'
- Synthetic biology and the rise of the 'spider-goats'
That is what we can now do with genetics: extreme crossbreeding. If 20th-century biology was about taking living things apart to find out how they work, the current era is defined by putting them back together, but not necessarily as evolution decreed, and certainly without the clumsy constraints of mating.
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Benefits
- Meet Spider Goat - the DNA-enhanced web-flinging nanny that may one day knit bones
Molecular biologist Randy Lewis claims that within two years, spider silk milked from goats could replace your body's tired or strained tendons and ligaments - maybe even bones.
Pros and cons argument
- Genetically engineered spider goats could be biotechnology's next big hit"You can splice the genes from orb-weaving spiders into goats and produce spider goats," Gore explains, "which mercifully, look like goats."
Film clip and article
- Spidergoats to the rescue! How to make silk from milk with genetic engineering
Silk from orb-weaving spiders is versatile and valuable.
