An article appeared in the Daily Mail online recently, which provoked some interest. The article claimed that of late, some Dutch researchers have grown human skin cells which, like Superman without the Kryptonite susceptibility, are bulletproof.
Upon reading this line, I immediately envisaged John Connor euphoric, now with an effective strategy against Skynet.
The project was named "2.6g, 329m/s" after the mass and velocity 0.22 calibre long rifle bullet. Essentially, the gene for making spider silk protein was incorporated into the genome of some goats, and so when these goats produced milk, that same silk protein was found in the milk, liquid form. Subsequently, the protein was purified and spun into strands and thread.
A mesh type structure was constructed with this extracted silk, and the researchers managed to grow a culture of human epithelial skin cells on said matrix. A bullet was fired at this skin setup and apparently, the silk matrix supporting the skin made it impenetrable to bullets.
The article also suggested that the objected of this project was the possibility of incorporating this same silk protein gene into the human genome. The idea is to replace the keratin in skin with the silk protein - ergo, bulletproof humans. Cue, John Connor.
Upon researching, some relevant articles on the bioengineering of the fundamentals of the project were found.
It's been known for quite some time that spider silk exhibits tremendous strength: it has 5 times the tensile strength of steel, much more elasticity than nylon and is tougher than Kevlar (Scholastic News, 2002). Initially, spider genes were put into cow and hamster cells and it was found that these cells produced spider silk proteins. These proteins formed a liquid phase and were subsequently squeezed into a strand.
Some potential uses outlined in some of these past journal articles found were biodegradable fishing line, soft armor, tennis strings and applications in microsurgery (providing very fine but strong thread for suturing).
I then began to wonder why there was such frequent use of mammals to generate these proteins. It seemed illogical to go to the effort of growing cells or putting the genes into the genomes of livestock in order to make the silk, when spider's seem to this of their own accord everyday.
After reading some more, the answer became quite obvious - mass production. The idea of spider farms had been attempted, but proved unsuccessful - the spiders ate each other. Goats, on the other hand, generally don't do this. (Current Science, 2002).
It turns out that mammals and spiders produce milk and silk proteins (respectively) in relatively the same manner, hence the logic in using goats to produce the silk-protein infused milk. Mammals produce milk, and spiders produce silk proteins in skin-like cells and the products are then held in a lumen of some sort to minimise shear-stress. (Design News, 1998).
The idea of population impervious to bullets does sound a like science-fiction, but I wonder if it really would do any good. I'm sure it's possible that, even with a bulletproof skin, a hit by a bullet would result in some sort of internal bleeding.
Thoughts?
Wendy.
Upon reading this line, I immediately envisaged John Connor euphoric, now with an effective strategy against Skynet.
A mesh type structure was constructed with this extracted silk, and the researchers managed to grow a culture of human epithelial skin cells on said matrix. A bullet was fired at this skin setup and apparently, the silk matrix supporting the skin made it impenetrable to bullets.
The article also suggested that the objected of this project was the possibility of incorporating this same silk protein gene into the human genome. The idea is to replace the keratin in skin with the silk protein - ergo, bulletproof humans. Cue, John Connor.
Upon researching, some relevant articles on the bioengineering of the fundamentals of the project were found.
It's been known for quite some time that spider silk exhibits tremendous strength: it has 5 times the tensile strength of steel, much more elasticity than nylon and is tougher than Kevlar (Scholastic News, 2002). Initially, spider genes were put into cow and hamster cells and it was found that these cells produced spider silk proteins. These proteins formed a liquid phase and were subsequently squeezed into a strand.
Some potential uses outlined in some of these past journal articles found were biodegradable fishing line, soft armor, tennis strings and applications in microsurgery (providing very fine but strong thread for suturing).
I then began to wonder why there was such frequent use of mammals to generate these proteins. It seemed illogical to go to the effort of growing cells or putting the genes into the genomes of livestock in order to make the silk, when spider's seem to this of their own accord everyday.
After reading some more, the answer became quite obvious - mass production. The idea of spider farms had been attempted, but proved unsuccessful - the spiders ate each other. Goats, on the other hand, generally don't do this. (Current Science, 2002).
It turns out that mammals and spiders produce milk and silk proteins (respectively) in relatively the same manner, hence the logic in using goats to produce the silk-protein infused milk. Mammals produce milk, and spiders produce silk proteins in skin-like cells and the products are then held in a lumen of some sort to minimise shear-stress. (Design News, 1998).
The idea of population impervious to bullets does sound a like science-fiction, but I wonder if it really would do any good. I'm sure it's possible that, even with a bulletproof skin, a hit by a bullet would result in some sort of internal bleeding.
Thoughts?
Wendy.
This is really interesting. You would need a pretty clever lawyer to begin producing bullet-proof human clones; perhaps bullet-proof combat dogs for the military are a more immediately realizable outcome (methinks mesmells a DARPA funding opportunity!). -Seth
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