Squitex: Sustainable and All-Natural Performance Fabric

Member: Tandem Repeat 

Project dates: 2022 – 2025

Tandem Repeat created Squitex, a fermentation-enabled protein that uses a gene originally found in the tentacles of the squid. It is smaller than a silk molecule and produces a soft fiber with high stretch and strength properties when blended with other fibers like cotton and denim but with lower water and land usage. Fermented using sugar and glycerol, this fiber has the potential to be self-healing.

Through this project, Tandem Repeat scaled three 1,000L fermentation batches. Following a wet spinning process to produce fiber, over 1 kg of protein-based fiber and yarn samples were produced and shared with government partners, fashion brands, and textile mills. The team plans to scale up to 500 kg in the near future.

Downstream processing is a particular challenge due to the small debris in a system prone to aggregation. To address this, Tandem Repeat evaluated centrifugation, membrane filtration, ionic liquid extraction, and alkaline extraction methods. They filed a patent application for the alkaline extraction methods. This project also included a techno-economic analysis to model various biomass options and downstream processing scenarios and identify commodity pricing projections.

After learning that yeast biomass is suitable for spinning for fiber composites with recombinant proteins and cellulose, Tandem Repeat is now exploring how to make durable fabrics from spent yeast.

Funding source: U.S. Department of Defense