ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,312,709, issued on May 27.
"Composition, method, and apparatus for fabricating silk proteins and products thereof" was invented by Haley Bergman (Davis, Calif.), Preston Vanderpan (Davis, Calif.) and Avery Williamson (Davis, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of producing a fibroin protein product includes providing a stock solution of fibroin protein, injecting a first injection solution including a chaotropic salt into the stock solution, injecting a second injection solution including a kosmotropic salt into the stock solution to provide an intermediate solution, and exposing the intermediate solution to a shear force. A m...