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Tue, Aug 23 2011 at 8:36 PM

Please DO NOT source your science articles from the Daily Mail. Their science reporting is notoriously bad. I am a British molecular biologist, and I don't think I have ever seen a well reported science story in that newspaper. This whole bullet-proof skin thing is an art project. Jalila Essaidi is an artist, not a scientific researcher (google her). What she has demonstrated is that human cells grown on a bullet proof matrix are bullet-proof. Hardly surprising. If I smeared peanut butter on the spider silk it wouldn't mean that I'd made bullet-proof peanut butter. The way the silk was produced is interesting, but it's old news, and most definitely was not developed for this 'artwork' (as implied above). It was developed to create synthetic tendons for reconstructive surgery. There is definitely *not* research into getting humans to express "bullet-proof skin" that is "well underway". There's a few reasons for this. Here's a couple: There are around 50 keratin genes in the human genome. They are broadly divided into the hair keratins, and the cytokeratins. The ones that make up the top layer of your skin belong in the cytokeratin group. The thing is that keratins in this group are also responsible for a lot of structural organisation within cells, at the molecular level. Messing with them could cause cell shape to be distorted, could interfere with transport of molecules and organelles within the cell, and might damage cell division. Basically, it'd probably mess up your chances of... well, living! That said, if we presume that the cytokeratins that make up the top layer of the skin are *completely* separate from those that are important at the sub-cellular level, then we can look at the other scenario where those genes can be replaced with spider silk genes. I'm sure you know that keratin kinda flakes off the top layer of skin after a while. Think dandruff, or general household dust. This is quite important. Spider silk probably wouldn't do this, so we'd end up with layer upon layer of thick skin that won't flake off. A similar example of this is when someone has a condition that makes them over-produce keratin (hyperkeratosis) - so it's made faster than it can fall off (have a look at the wiki page for Palmoplantar keratoderma to see what this can look like). Even allowing for all of that then you're still left with the fact that although you would remove penetration of the skin, you'd still be left with the massive trauma of being hit with so much force. Unless there is a solid surface directly under the skin then this would most likely lead to massive internal bleeding

MNN - Mother Nature Network

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