Biotech Hobbyist Magazine.

Features - Human Skin Cultivation

Interested in growing skin ?

Interested in growing skin off your body? Then you are in the
right place !
Hey no questions…it is at least as good as having a pet
hamster, or a virtual kitten screen saver. The following is the
first part of series that will take you through how to grow your
own skin and some very cool projects to do with it.

You are not alone.

At the beginning of the C20th there was a rash of experiments
that tried to keep tissue alive. Julian Huxley published 'The
Tissue Culture King" in 1926, describing the process as 'a
techniques of great power' and lending the tissue a religious
significance . By the 50s growing tissue cultures was no longer
done for its own sake, it was transformed into a material, a tool
for biological investigation, a functional unit of analysis for
other investigations. Mass production techniques, standardized
nutrient media emerged and even the use of penicillin made the
tissue survival more practical. Then between '52-57 the tissue
bank was set up to support the exchange and storage of all the
animal an human cell lines that had been established. By the 70s
the property rights issues had been taken through court, deciding
that it is the scientist who owns the tissue, not the persons
who's biological material it is. The 80s and 90s were spent
privatizing and commercializing . So, in short, it was first
separated from the body, transformed into an exchange good, then
into property, intellectual property that is.. and finally into a
product. That's history.. and for the definitive history o life
of the sqaumous. If you are interested in reading more about the
fascinating history of tissue culture, Hannah Landeck is writing
it (finally!) and she has promised to write for the Biotech
hobbyist.. so stay tuned. 

Biotech hobbyist Starter Skin Kit.

In order to grow skin you need three essential ingredients:

1. A Cell Line (Preferably Immortal).
   • Human artierial endothelial cells.
2. Cell Nutrient.
   • Endothelial Cell Growth Medium.
3. A Body Temperature Growth Environment.
   • Microplate Incubator.

Biotech hobbyist can help you with the first two (and lots
of other good stuff too) in the SK-A1 Starter Skin kit, but the
last one is up to you. You have a few options… you can keep
it on you…. Your body coincidentally is a perfect
temperature… or there are a few home incubator kits that you
can use. One adapts the waste heat from the back of the
refrigerator, another re purposes your oven, but at pet stores
you can get a whole range of precision control incubators, to
heating elements/mats. Intended for whole living things.

What to do with your living skin ?

What to do.? There is endless things to do with skin. Do you
want to make it Glow in the Dark ? Do you want it to talk
directly to your computer by interfacing it with silicon ? Of
course you do ! The next project installments will explain how to
splice in a gene from Octopus that will make the skin glow.