Dinosaurs wallet? Scientists do not buy T. Rex dermatology

Three companies joined the development of a new luxurious alternative to the traditional skin. This looks normal – except for the material they are trying to create is nothing but something.

On Friday, April 25, Creative VML and Biotech Companies Labrown Leather Ltd. Organoid announced a “category” partnership. Their goal: creating an alternative free of cruelty, a friend of the environment, and high -quality for traditional skin, and is supposed to be used Tyrannosaurus Rex DNA. According to the company statementThe partnership aims to harness the “biology of the past to create luxury materials in the future.” Fishing is that they did not explain enough how they would do it – and some researchers are very skeptical.

“Using the fossil collagen T-REX as a plan, the production process will include artificial DNA geometric cells,” according to the statement. “Unlike the other vital alternatives, the” SCAFOLD -free “of the” SCAFOLD “allows the” SCAFOLD -free “cultivated by the cells to create its own natural structure, which leads to a structurally identical material for the traditional skin.”

Collagen he Fine protein In all animals, and Provides structural support To muscles, bones, skin and connective tissues. While researchers regained parts of collagen Up to 195 million years From the fossils of dinosaurs and other remains, DNA decomposes much more quickly. This means that scientists cannot study the DNA directly – they must rebuild it in other ways.

VML did not respond to a request from Gizmodo to clarify about his process. according to The TimesHowever, researchers plan to use artificial intelligence to create a replica of T. Rex Collagen is a preserved collagen fragments.

Collagen, like all proteins, is made of amino acids whose sequence is determined by arranging nucleotides in DNA – GeneticOr “instructions” of the gene for how to make a specific protein.

In an e -mail to Gizmodo, Christina Agapakis – an artificial biologist with a PhD from the Harvard University College of Medicine and the founder of Design Service Company – believes that researchers may use collagen sequence to work back and rebuild DNA that owns protein.

Whether the researchers take this approach or not, they are planning to include DNA to build collagen into cells, which will get consequences T. Rex The skin, according to the implanted leather Website. In tissue engineering, Scrap They are the materials that provide structural support for cells with the development of tissues. By growing without this structure, it appears that companies indicate that the final material will be just like natural skin.

According to Agapakis, researchers previously tried to re -create leather from cells, including a Leather The first model jacket of 2004. “Because” the production of leather on any scale of cells has been stubbornly, “Agapakis said it is excited to see its results and get to know this process.

There is only one problem. “You cannot make leather from collagen,” Mary Higbi Shawitzer, molecular excavation scholar of North Carolina State University, told Gizmodo. “The skin is tanned from the skin”, which mostly consists of “epithelial tissues. It is made of keratin in all ground vertebrates.”

On a larger scale, Shoveszer, who is not involved in the project, said that if she is trying to make dinosaurs skin, it will not start with T. RexBecause the thorpods skin samples are very rare. Specifically, “I will not start T. Rex Collagen, which you will notice did not mention how they got it or any T. Rex “This came, but the idea is great, but I don’t think this press statement is very accurate,” said Shawitzer. She added: “It will be a mistake to call it T. Rex leather.”

However, one can still argue that vital geometry leather-it is better than traditional skin, which is an industry linked to it Forest removal and large greenhouse gas emissions. but Consumers who have sustainable consumers can simply choose an exciting handbag, or one made of recycled materials, as AGAPAKIS indicated.

However, the modernity of such an element appeals to Agapakis. She said: “If I want something wonderful-in the true sense of the word-I will go with a skin that cultivates the laboratory using a collagen sequence from the 68 million years of collagen sample,” adding that such projects should not be practical to be worthy of attention. “I think there is a lot of this” sustainability. “

Companies are planning to start fashion accessories, then reach a luxurious major product by the end of the year. Under the line, they hope to bring their alternative skin to other sectors, including the auto industry.

This recent partnership brings a similar project – and controversy – to mind. Last month, Colossal Biological Technology Company It claims that it restored the terrible extinct wolves. Declaration Intense discussion About whether the puppies are real, terrible wolves, or just genetically modified gray wolves.

Doubts appear understandable whether VML will be rebuilt, Leather Leather Ltd. , And the alternative skin will be rebuilt T. Rex The skin, or just a skin inspired by dinosaurs. If there is anything, both projects reflect an increasing direction for companies that use science to give legitimacy to ideas that may be convincing on their own – to apply them only through questionable claims.