Amsilk partners with 21st.BIO

Advanced materials specialist AMSilk GmbH (Neuried, Germany) and biotech production specialst 21st.BIO (Copenhagen) have announced to join forces to accelerate the upscaling of AMSilk’s E. coli-based recombinant spider silk protein production. As first companies in the  world, 21st.BIO, which is active in dairy protein and advanced materials strain and process optimisation, and its longstanding partner AMSilk, have developed a new protein production strain created from highly specialised precision fermented microorganisms partly licenced from Novozymes A/S, ensuring that AMSilk can meet demand as it increases production from the laboratory to industrial scale.

One month ago the companies reported in Nature Biotechnology about an optimised strain. The new strain ensures secretion of silk proteins, enabling manufacturing at unprecedented productivity levels due to higher yield and greater efficiency, thereby reducing production costs. For the past years, the world-class science teams of 21st.BIO and AMSilk have been collaborating very closely to develop and scale the production of spider silk proteins, which is predicted to become a disruptive force in the biomedical, cosmetics, and textile industries.

AMSilk’s spider silk-based proteins are wholly biodegradable and biocompatible. Based on a renewable plant based feedstock, AMSilk fibers do not contain any substances of animal origin and come with a CO₂ greenhouse gas emission reduction of up to 90% and more than 90% less land and water use compared to other protein fibers. Their high-performance qualities enable a wide range of applications in the textile, homecare, biomedical, and automotoive industries.

As one of the world’s first industrial scale suppliers of advanced materials made from spider silk-based proteins, AMSilk has been redefining the performance fiber category since 2015, with applications in footwear (adidas lightweight running shoe prototype) and garments, and even interior components that replace fossil-based plastics for automobiles . With a strong patent portfolio, AMSilk is leading the discovery of performance materials based on spider silk proteins. 

21st.BIO benefits from its advanced precision fermentation technology platform, with production strains that have been optimised for more than 40 years and used in dozens of products on the market today. Working in close collaboration with AMSilk, 21st.BIO’s scientists have developed and optimised new production strains, fermentation and downstream processes to support upscaled production and significantly reduce unit costs. This will enable AMSilk to further broaden its portfolio into different types of fibers and proteins, with applications in the broader mid-market.

Ulrich Scherbel, Chief Executive Officer, AMSilk commented: “By partnering with 21st.BIO, we are succeeding where so many have struggled, delivering high performance precision fermentation at the right quality and cost parameters, and at a true industrial scale.”  

Per Falholt, Chief Scientific Officer, 21st.BIO continued: “We are incredibly proud to support companies like AMSilk. Our partnership has already led to some key milestone achievements, such as the world’s first extracellular expression of spider silk protein, which facilitates processes and enables manufacturing at unprecedented productivity levels. We are confident that within a short time frame, we can achieve a significant reduction in production costs, enabling AMSilk to enter higher value markets.”

Recombinant spider silk proteins hold the potential to replace fossil resources-based plastics products, thus replacing a major threat for the environment and climate. AMSilk has developed a wide range of use cases for its silk proteins, from developing the leading spinning process for silk protein fibers, to transforming proteins into silk beads, gels and solutions to unlock the power of their coating effects. AMSilk’s silk protein-based fibers set completely new standards within the apparel industry, offering unbelievably broad performance characteristics, ranging from ultra fineness to extreme strength, making them ideal as premium, low carbon material alternatives. AMSilk has also entered the performance yarn segment with technical yarns for the automotive industry – reflected in its collaboration with Mercedes Benz. AMSilk’s silk protein formulations bring exceptional filming properties to dishwashing and laundry care, providing outstanding performance benefits as a bioshield.