Report in Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer on 2.6g 329m/s, a project by young Dutch bio-artist Jalila Essaïdi honoured in 2010 with a Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award. For this project Essaïdi enlisted the help of American molecular biologist Randy Lewis and Leiden University cell biologist Abdulwaheb El Ghalbzouri. Together they managed to breed pieces of human skin reinforced with spider silk bred by Lewis' transgenic silk worms. On May 25, 2011, two pieces were tested at the Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague. One of them managed to resist a bullet half-full of gunpowder. Essaïdi and El Ghalbzouri are confident they will soon be able to pass the ultimate test for conventional body-armor - resisting a .22 bullet fully loaded with 2.6 g of gunpowder and travelling at 329 m/s; hence the name of the project - by breeding skin incorporating 16 layers of spider silk instead of 8. Essaïdi wants to make us reflect on our attitudes and feelings towards (in)security, inside and outside our homes. 2.6g 329m/s will be on show from June 17, 2011, till January 8, 2012 in Museum Naturalis, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Original Title
20110623 New Connective Tissue - Bullet-Resistant Skin as Art Part III
Report in Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer on 2.6g 329m/s, a project by young Dutch bio-artist Jalila Essaïdi honoured in 2010 with a Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award. For this project Essaïdi enlisted the help of American molecular biologist Randy Lewis and Leiden University cell biologist Abdulwaheb El Ghalbzouri. Together they managed to breed pieces of human skin reinforced with spider silk bred by Lewis' transgenic silk worms. On May 25, 2011, two pieces were tested at the Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague. One of them managed to resist a bullet half-full of gunpowder. Essaïdi and El Ghalbzouri are confident they will soon be able to pass the ultimate test for conventional body-armor - resisting a .22 bullet fully loaded with 2.6 g of gunpowder and travelling at 329 m/s; hence the name of the project - by breeding skin incorporating 16 layers of spider silk instead of 8. Essaïdi wants to make us reflect on our attitudes and feelings towards (in)security, inside and outside our homes. 2.6g 329m/s will be on show from June 17, 2011, till January 8, 2012 in Museum Naturalis, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Report in Dutch weekly De Groene Amsterdammer on 2.6g 329m/s, a project by young Dutch bio-artist Jalila Essaïdi honoured in 2010 with a Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award. For this project Essaïdi enlisted the help of American molecular biologist Randy Lewis and Leiden University cell biologist Abdulwaheb El Ghalbzouri. Together they managed to breed pieces of human skin reinforced with spider silk bred by Lewis' transgenic silk worms. On May 25, 2011, two pieces were tested at the Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague. One of them managed to resist a bullet half-full of gunpowder. Essaïdi and El Ghalbzouri are confident they will soon be able to pass the ultimate test for conventional body-armor - resisting a .22 bullet fully loaded with 2.6 g of gunpowder and travelling at 329 m/s; hence the name of the project - by breeding skin incorporating 16 layers of spider silk instead of 8. Essaïdi wants to make us reflect on our attitudes and feelings towards (in)security, inside and outside our homes. 2.6g 329m/s will be on show from June 17, 2011, till January 8, 2012 in Museum Naturalis, Leiden, The Netherlands.