Spider Beer - Making Yeast Produce Spider Silk - Project Overview

This week we kick off the start of the spider beer project which is the big genetic engineering project I've been talking about. For this weeks video I'll be going over the whole project and what it's going to take to make it work. The project is relatively straight forward. We'll be taking a silk gene out of black widow spiders, and building a plasmid that makes it express in a species of yeast so that it can be produced en mass easily.
This isn't the end of the project though. Once we make it through the above, there are more changes and tweaks we'll be making, but this is the first goal post and will be a major success if it works. Once this plasmid is built it will be released for those interested to play around with and modify for their own projects.
In theory the whole procedure will be done in about 2 days once the last of the materials arrive, but since this is biology I'm assuming it'll take far longer to actually succeed.
And when all's said and done, I'm planning to write a paper on all of this with my collaborator and publish it in a peer reviewed journal.
Once I'm comfortable working with these silk sequences we'll explore silks from other species like spider mites, and may eventually move past yeast and start modifying silk worms to produce these silks instead of their native variants. We'll also explore extracting and spinning fibers from the silk we produce in yeast.
Some links:
PCR - en.wikipedia.o...
Gibson assembly - en.wikipedia.o...
Overview of recombinant spider silks - www.ncbi.nlm.n...
Pklac2 plasmid backbone - www.neb.com/pr...
____________________________________________________________________
Support the show and future projects:
Patreon: / thethoughtemporium
Nebula: go.nebula.tv/t...
Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/thou...
Become a member: / @thethoughtemporium
Store: thethoughtempo...
______________________________________________________
Our Social Media Pages:
Tiktok: / thethoughtemporium
Instagram: / thethoughtemporium
Facebook: / thethoughtemporium
Twitter: / emporiumthought
Website: thethoughtempor...
_____________________________________________________

[@ozymandias7362]

you're so criminally underrated

[@crownofall]

I feel like I understood this completely and not at all at the same time,

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

After the video, I had to take a break because smoke was coming out of my head. So EXCELLENT!

[@MrBrew4321]

Lofl, same here... I watched it twice, had some very confusing conversations with a guy majoring in bio, watched some other videos, just watched a third time buuuut I thiiink there was less smoke coming outa my head this time XP

[@crownofall]

I learned some when working in microbiology but not being the focus on the lab it was little & long ago (early 90's) most of this stuff is newer than that so it's almost like learning about it for the first time

[@Sorenzo]

The amazing thing about these technologies is how utterly simple they are. Training to become a lab tech, I kept wondering why such simple procedures weren't developed earlier, but the fact is that it all depended on big projects on decoding genomes, without which nothing would be possible. But now that we have an increasing understanding of the functionality of genes, the rest of the work is simple enough to do with fairly little practice. When we did similar work during lab tech school, most of us had success on our first go - notably, not me. ;)

[@emerald807]

"Would you like something to drink?" She opened the fridge. "We have water, milk, juice, spider beer, Dr. Pepper -- " "Spider beer?" "Spider beer it is then." "No, that wasn't -- "

[@Hastilygrim]

It might be like swallowing a strand of spaghetti whole and then pulling it back out.

[@MrBrew4321]

"No No I'll have the milk please... I think?" "Ah yes the spider milk, shall I have that spun into a web for you sir?"

[@Meep3692]

We got soda, OJ, purple stuff, and two kinds of genetically modified mead!

[@michaelclark4876]

One of these days I need to get around to making human hemoglobin wine and human myoglobin bread. Just need to get my hands on some RNA isolated from the appropriate tissues or cell culture lines derived from skeletal muscle or bone marrow to clone out the cDNAs by RT-PCR. Little harder than bulk spiders.

[@befer]

@@michaelclark4876 alright, Dr. Doofenshmirtz

[@AppliedScience]

Wow! I'm looking forward to this!

[@MatthewStauffer]

I would love to see a collaboration between the two of you.

[@MrRolnicek]

It's mindboggling that something like this is even possible to do. And this guy is doing it in his homemade lab.

[@ricardasist]

exactly!! how is this possible?

[@WallHaxxx]

That's pretty much what I was going to comment. This dude is a fucking wizard. JFC

[@SilvaDreams]

Honestly in the US we're held back by laws enacted by the religious who are scared of us playing god so this sort of thing can't be done in a lot of facilities because they are government funded, private labs can since they aren't government funded but that would mean they would have to eat all of the funding and if they can't do it efficiently or reliably or turn a profit from in which is getting harder as people are getting miss informed that genetically modified things are bad and will kill them in some horrid way or give them cancer. What he is doing here is rather simple and is more of a proof of concept and isn't overly costly to do.

[@NeuroticKnight9]

@@SilvaDreams To US credit, we are the world leaders in this tech, because Europe is too scared and environmentalist groups have halted research. hate or love, fact that companies like Monsanto can thrive is a testament to scientific progressivism in USA. It is same reason vaccines get developed here too.

[@raspberrypi4993]

@@NeuroticKnight9 I hope you all get vaccinated by monsanto, gonna be much easier to just roundup everyone, rather than waiting when you all shoot eachother.

[@dude2345672]

new horrifying phrase "bulk vial of spiders"

[@TheR971]

This youtube account is of the highest craftsdwarfship!

[@WaterLettuceProductions]

@@TheR971 Is that supposed to be craftsmanship or did you have a stroke?

[@nihil2157]

@@WaterLettuceProductions its inside joke from dwarf fortress

[@1d10tcannotmakeusername]

@@WaterLettuceProductions sudo apt-get install dwarf-fortress

[@skyjoe55]

"But I'm no farmer and brewing beer is easier than raising sheep" Well, at least he's humble

[@tagrisaj3344]

Goats*

[@DylanODonnell]

Is this a KZbin video series or a PHD thesis?

[@raymundom6974]

Its a hobby

[@dtkleo]

Life orbits itself as much as it does astrophysical gravity. Or maybe not.

[@kadenfurr9699]

both

[@Kavukamari]

..... both?

[@pinaz993]

Both is good.

[@LexYeen]

"A bulk vial of spiders only costs twenty bucks." ...Good to know‽ _I guess‽_

[@oliphab7468]

Is that an interobang!?

[@totally_not_a_bot]

@@oliphab7468 I really wish the interrobang looked better, or was more sensible. Maybe more like ϕ but with a dot. Would make it more suitable for handwriting, as well.

[@spiritualdawg3623]

Alexis your question marks look wierd

[@filonin2]

@@spiritualdawg3623 lol

[@griffith8929]

‽

[@CaveyMoth]

You bought a vial of spiders..a vial of black widows, no less! That's hardcore. And this experiment is mind-blowing O.O.

[@davideloewen]

This is hands down the most concise and straightforward breakdown of the generic engineering process I have run across yet that doesn't leave out any significant steps. Well done my good man, well done.

[@foolwise4703]

HOLY COW this is AWESOME! And it is rather incredible in scope - if I did not know anything about the background, I would have associated this project with a medium sized research group in a university, not a hacker-lab. It is little bit scary and quite inspiring to see this stuff being possible in a shed as a private endeavor.

[@jantumo1425]

we must open source everything for the greater good

[@domino52o26]

Communistic science sounds great! /s

[@ghostiewhostie238]

Mr P ing really? He has a point though. More open source science the more people like TTE can apply new methods to improve said sciences.

[@shannondove96]

Domino52o i am going to see what pastor steve anderson has to say about this

[@luckyboyyt8582]

Wow, my 11 year old self just had a wish granted by this project. I have always been impressed by the strength of black widow webs.

[@ngtienminhhuy]

You are the most talent DIY on youtube. Im speechless and always be surprised of every video you upload

[@wgm-en2gx]

I need a copy of Genetic Engineering for Dummies... Fascinating video but i understand about 0.1%.

[@ruchirapatil5807]

I know this is really late but as a bachelor level student I recommend gene cloning and DNA analysis by TA brown. It's fairly easy to understand

[@Kaos1382]

It's very admirable that you're releasing this information and final product. the advancement, betterment, and raised interest in things like this is extremely important.

[@ljba4591]

Bioconcrete sounds awesome!

[@giin97]

As long as it, you know, doesn't biodegrade.

[@TheDudlydude]

Or cover the world.

[@justindie7543]

there probably isn't enough carbon in the world to make bioconcrete at the scale we make regular concrete.

[@alis4328]

@@justindie7543 Isn't carbon the 4th most abundant element in our universe?

[@kaiohitsuji287]

@@alis4328 yep

[@DnBastard]

this is so awesome. i'm a software engineer and the paralells between software and genetics are staggering. it's like an alien programming language, but you're reverse engineering nature itself, something that didn't come from human imagination. my brain is orgasming so hard right now I love this channel

[@andymeier3602]

"this is by far the easiest method"...

[@nagarajaraogangodu5184]

Finally a guy in science community to put out his brain work without exchange for money but value . Good job mate, open source breeds innovation and expansion of knowledge.

[@user-tk8xr2os2w]

I just found your channel. Love this. It's super inspirational! I'm an undergrad at a small campus that doesn't really do any genetic engineering (the field I'm hoping to make a career in) and I love how much of it you've done in a home lab. There's always a part of me that worries that I won't get into grad school and that I won't end up in a good genetics lab. Your videos remind me that I can still do genetic engineering in the future, even if I don't get paid for it.

[@OleZZ222]

Most of the time I have no clue what you're talking about, but it's your euphoria what makes me smile while watching your videos. Do you know, what seperates you from most people? Pasison. Please never stop doing what you love.

[@josh.8104]

TTE: *explains the project in great detail* Me: Ah, yes, circles.

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

"Yes its true, the new Space Elevator is made from Spider Beer". Black Widows and Beer: Um Um Good!

[@mrdr4934]

It’s things like this that makes me want to go into biology

[@nickcowley8757]

Get a biochem degree! I'm working on things like this in undergraduate labs (much less detailed labs though)

[@beeestuff9819]

I'm starting biology school in september and I'm geeking out so much right now xD even though i can't really follow what you're saying yet

[@michaelfixedsys7463]

I never thought I would hear the phrase “bulk vial of spiders” but I now have, and I’m glad

[@Manquia]

This feels like a masters project of sorts... Really love the content. Really insightful and interesting to see the planning. On future projects be sure to do this sort of summary as its really cool!

[@bellumxyz1421]

I am SO glad I found this channel. I subscribed the second the video started. Normally I would check more about the youtuber and then subscribe. This was instant. THIS IS THE CONTENT I WAS LOOKING FOR ALL ALONG!!!

[@stopit4uca]

Man I love the concept of you saying mixing spider silk with other things to create a stronger material such as bricks would graphene be one of those materials you're talking about. Dude you're such a fast learner

[@gabesmith8331]

Thanks for making these videos. Soon I will be able to live my lifelong dream of being a super hero. Keep an eye on the news for headlines featuring "Yeastman".

[@gustavlindstrom9856]

Great video! I have never been interested in biology or chemestry, untill now! This is amazing, you have sparked a whole new area of interest for me!

[@charleswood2131]

I just found a new project. I always read about gene manipulation but watching this made it seem so much less confusing and impossible to achieve outside of a giant laboratory. This is a great video.

[@natsrome]

I'm very excited to see how this turns out!

[@lucasamoriim5126]

I understood absolutely nothing of this, but i'll absolutely keep watching.

[@treyfruge5797]

Wow. Just wow man, I'm so glad this channel is here.

[@austint.6627]

Absolutely amazing, gives me hope and inspiration. Much love from the PNW US

[@samanthaweber2195]

I appreciate and respect you for making the end product free

[@higgins2923]

This is great, I'm learning stuff like this at uni, but this is so much clearer

[@Justin-dv7ul]

wow amazing how you managed to do all of this in just two years, would've taken me forever, it felt really good watching you plan this project. love this channel

[@notamouse5630]

This is awesome, as an electrical engineer who is a materials and biology nerd, this is something I'd like to see. Also, GFP isn't just fluorescent, it naturally emits near its cylinder axis. This means maybe lasers if you can get the GFP to align by sticking it together right.

[@themadpolymath3430]

I am so glad I found your channel, this is so inspiring!!!!

[@storyspren]

"A bulk vial of spiders" my dude visited a witch's hut I'm pretty sure.

[@MESIRlX]

Although a tad dense, you did a great job with summarizing and simplifying the subject matter of the video. Love it!

[@johnsontan345]

I love this style of video! I learn much more from this than from over-polished videos from crash course etc.

[@wadeguidry6675]

Far out! That's all I can say. You guys blow my mind. Keep up the great work!

[@zeekjones1]

11:17 - Bricks? Could make them into armor plates for vests. Light and tough.

[@adamklam1]

Please do an Follow up Mention/video on your Lactose In/Tolerance, and maybe explain why something so DIY-able isn't yet a commercially available product?

[@TheWretchedOwl]

This looks like an amazing idea, but I have to wonder... what sort of a chance is there that the modified yeast will get out into the air and turn your neighbor’s sourdough starter into a bowl of spider silk?

[@Barskor1]

They should be so lucky!

[@blargor123]

Very low risk of happening since the silk Gene adds a lot of work that makes the yeast not competitive compared with natural microbes or other yeast. It will simply be bested by the natural yeasts.

[@HidekiShinichi]

that would be weird :D

[@Abdega]

Hi protein bread!

[@blahblahblahblah2837]

@@blargor123 Thats a very reasonable hypothesis, *but* we cannot be certain of that.

[@EdwinvandenAkker]

So, now I know whatever happened to Peter Parker 🤔

[@newgreen956]

He was a normal researcher, until he got bitten by radioactive Gen modified spider yeast

[@no_special_person]

Yeah, that’s what happens when you get bitten by a drunk spider

[@cazhalsey8877]

I LOVE THE VERSATILITY OF YEAST!!!

[@TempestKitty]

this is super awesome! looking forward to the vids !

[@foobeaglebar]

This is so awesome. Keep up the good work. I'm looking for to seeing how this project goes. Can't wait for the next video in this series.

[@vsssa1845]

Wow, why am I finding this channel now. This is solid gold find for me

[@Gaidenas]

wow just found this channel. Wow. Wow. This is insanely well done. Even without major scientific background I can grasp the ideas and understand what is being said. Extremely interesting!

[@chickendipper679]

I just hear smart stuff, smart stuff, smart stuff... I love it!

[@TheLaughingDove]

This is weirdly helpful in letting me arrange disparate bits of informal knowledge of biology into something more organized and coherent......

[@Ratchet4647]

In my Bio 2 lab class we actually caught a golden orb weaver spider for an experiment to test dna barcoding and to get a phylogeny of local spiders. It was huge! I'm still amazed we managed to catch it.

[@asderidelp]

I hated biology in school, but this is just amazing. And you explained it so well, so I think I understood what you're planning to do :D

[@uckfayooglegay9982]

Until finding your channel I had zero interest in biology but your hacker mindset and love of Open Source speak to me and have gotten my interest. Maybe one day when I want a break from my other projects I'll give the glowing yeast a go. Anyways, thank you for such a great channel.

[@thethoughtemporium]

I'd suggest starting with bacteria. They're so much easier. I only started with yeast cause I was planing on brewing with it shortly after the video went out, and because this project uses yeast so I wanted some practice. E coli are a million times easier. The heat shock step only takes 30 seconds and there's great kits to do stuff in E coli from a variety of suppliers. If I can get the glowgurt to work I'll share that specific bacteria so people can start with one they know works rather than the crap shoot of using random ones from random yogurt.

[@uckfayooglegay9982]

The Thought Emporium Thanks, I'll have a look into that (Although that nerd cred of making your own glowing booze is cooler)

[@uckfayooglegay9982]

The Thought Emporium looking at the $29 kit from Odin the shipping to Australia is gonna be $15. Guess I'm gonna be trying to source all the parts elsewhere (also gets rid of the issue of supporting a business that has the issues you mentioned in the previous video) My only problem is the fact that instructions that are understandable to a layperson like myself are rather scarce. Looks like my skill at banging my head on the brick wall of the problem at hand until something gives will prove useful yet again!

[@uckfayooglegay9982]

Correction: information on sourcing is the issue, not instructions. Curse my sleep deprived mind

[@thethoughtemporium]

Video on stocking and sourcing materials is coming up in about a month, so that ought to help a bit

[@masterzoroark6664]

I remembered that french guy who had a colony of spiders and made glowes and such from their silk. This venture didn't went far, but is rather well known for how weird it was

[@ZiggyBonham]

Literally just got done watching your last video on this and I get this in my notifications. Glad I hit the bell 😉

[@setha6096]

This is amazing! Thanks for sharing all of this amazing information and science in an entertaining way.

[@peisenmay061988]

well that video shows exact procedures I do as job responsibilities.

[@ronniebrummett4995]

I can’t wait to see the rest of these vids!

[@Eric_Pham]

The preserve black widow creeps me out

[@piranha031091]

That is sooo cool... Looking forward to yeast-grown spider-swaters and spiderconcrete!

[@maverickh9]

You're one lab accident away from becoming a supervillain.

[@ChristianPretorius]

I thought making some videos about excel was too nerdy or might be boring. I watched this whole video and I have no idea what you were talking about. I am still not sure I have any idea of what's going on. That said - I found this super inspiring to know you're doing things like this. I wish you all the best man!

[@aion2177]

omg man this is nuts!! i have so much more to learn.. i'm barely understanding 3% of all this :(

[@madscientistshusta]

3:30 Suddenly bioshock makes sense now!🤯

[@theastroslav]

Be interesting to see some modified SCOBY Silk. Be great as an organic cling wrap for stretchy silk, biodegradable grocery bags, or, as you said, possible “growable bricks” for space travel/remote areas of the globe. Could even grow it in molds and make parts/materials to work with! Great videos!!

[@michaelclark4876]

E coil is a prokaryote. There can be significant problems with getting proteins from eukaryotes properly folded you can end up with a lot of the protein in a precipitated insoluble mess and even what is soluble may not function properly. R coil also cannot perform any modifications after the protein in synthesized such as adding sugars to produce glycoproteins. Yeast is a eukaryote and expresses eukaryotic proteins very nicely. As I was told in my undergraduate research lab (which did yeast molecular biology), yeast is more like a very small cow than a very large bacteria.

[@Odood19]

Superb idea for a project, yeast just keeps on giving

[@beachboardfan9544]

Really looking forward to this series, this is something I know almost nothing about. 👍

[@joef2593]

Really great to see theory put to practice, great job!

[@bunnybro5977]

I asked my biochemistry professor what the most efficient machine could be on the small scale,and he said if you look down small enough,you realise that every living organism is basically a highly sophisticated machine with cogs moving on the molecular level

[@nathansmith3608]

dang, that's pretty cool! so for your next project, you mind building a sustainable fusion reactor for us? :P

[@Munden]

wow, this is unexpected and amazing!

[@Xraller]

Im all in for the spider beer that lets me shoot webs from my hands while Im drunk.👌🏼

[@bludeat7398]

O.O epic, btw do you think you can make capsaicin producing yeast?

[@kings_pride]

for cold, hot, beer? :D

[@thethoughtemporium]

Sure, but it's a big pathway. If you find a premade plasmid and send it to me, I'll happily make some.

[@Kalanchoe1]

but capsaicin is not hard to get in large quantities. Why do you need yeast to produce it?

[@FAB1150]

@@Kalanchoe1 why not?

[@bludeat7398]

@@kings_pride I love hot food and drinks :D

[@PPYTAO]

So glad I found your channel. Keep up the amazing vids 👍

[@alan2here]

Also wow :) just wow, please, bring it on.

[@Steelrat1994]

I had no idea genetic engineering was so advanced and available already.

[@josephrossman1600]

So here I am laying in bed @.50 looking at the spider web and a real spider comes flying onto my phone from the ceiling. What a coincidence. The best part was I couldn't tell if it was the video or not.

[@AtlasReburdened]

That bit about mineralization is insanely interesting and has me thinking about the possibility of chelating a catalytic metal and attaching it to a substance that the yeast will integrate into the final structure. Or possibly making it integrate minerals conducive to use as battery electrodes. Engineering solids on that scale and somewhat from the bottom up like that opens a ridiculous number of possibilities.

[@mjsvitek]

12:17 Spiderman theme playing in background...

[@xkaku9072]

Forget science at school just watch this guy video for your rest of school year

[@thesadisticmoppit6113]

You absolute mad lad. If this was in my country you would low key be in jail right now. Bloody amazing anyway. Keep it coming

[@lttadas11]

You are dream biotechnologist incarnate! Please keep up the series. and for next project something with bioluminescence would be much appreciated :)

[@kimwretling2735]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

[@Sorenzo]

I'm a trained lab tech, but I was too disorganized for this kind of work, so I switched to electronics and now I'm just looking for unskilled labour. I wonder whether this video makes me feel more relief or regret. ;) By the way, me and my Algerian girlfriend have a dream of owning a goat. Well, it's a strange dream, but baby goats are incredibly cute, and she was born in a remote village and knows how to handle goats. Maybe we should raise a spidergoat for you. ;)

[@peteri6020]

I'm super curious how you fund all these projects! I'd love to run a garage lab to dabble in all the weird and wonderful things you've been making. Is all of this just through Patreon money? would you be able to do a "How i got here" for all aspiring back yard scientists?

[@jaythewolf7216]

ahh yes drunk spider man the new super hero we all need

[@evanbarnes9984]

It's nice to know that the book WORM had some moments of being hard SF.

[@transkryption]

She's got spiderwebs up there... A whole new meaning to a yeast infection...

[@Neoflares]

has this been done before? I looked it up but didn't go deep into researching and if this project is successful then you should publish your findings since the way they make silk spider silk now is out of goats milks and I'm pretty sure yeast is a lot easier to take care than goats! ( I didn't watch the video yet so excuse me if you already explained this).

[@vsssa1845]

He said he will write a paper on it, in the description

[@AllthatmakesFall]

If I was still in elementary school, I would've flexed on everyone's science project

[@tS-gh9dj]

Wow just wow. This guy is tuning and Messing around with genetics like somebody would tune a car or a guitar.