“Biocol” for the Terminator

Why don’t people grow back lost limbs like lizards do? How can you reconstruct someone’s skin after an atomic explosion? What do you do if you go out for vodka and get frost-bitten? We put these questions to Mr. Boris Karpovich Gavrilyuk, a professor, doctor, and head of the Laboratory of Cell and Tissue Growth at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics.

2045: Mr. Karpovich, tell us: what exactly does your laboratory study? And what new developments have there been recently in your field of scientific interests?

Boris Gavrilyuk: I study something that is commonly called “artificial skin”. I began developing this material back in the late 1980s. The inquiry went something like this: Given the threat of atomic disasters accompanied by an enormous number of people injured by ultraviolet and gamma radiation, is it possible to create a kind of “artificial skin”? We had to create materials that would, first of all, have the same attributes as the top layer of skin and, secondly, have the ability to heal the lower, damaged layers.

In the end, we created a device that we called “Biological Colloid”, or “Biocol”. It combines qualities of both synthetic and natural polymers. No one had yet managed to create such a composite, because we combined utterly incompatible materials.

2045: Why did you decide to try an incompatible combination?

B.G.: We simply figured out what needed to be done! Then we ran many experiments, several thousand, took a long time in selecting what we needed, and ever since then we’ve been able to combine those things and implement them.

2045: What is your device capable of doing?

B.G.: Biocol can restore skin and tissue in even the most severe cases. For example, there was a situation at a clinic when a vagrant came in; it was around -30 degrees Celsius outside, and he had gone out to buy vodka. In bare feet. He was told, “You have third- or fourth-degree frostbite, with necrosis. Go home, and after everything progresses, we’ll amputate your leg and order a prosthesis.” A different doctor decided to treat him with Biocol. The necrotic tissues fell away, new ones grew, and it saved his legs. Here’s another case: a woman was helping her mother make cabbage soup, and she sustained a third-degree burn. After twice using Biocol to treat the burn, her skin was fully restored. One of the advantages of the device is that a scar doesn’t form—instead, the cells that make up the damaged organ grow.

2045: How does that work?

B.G.: In human skin there are two layers: the epidermis and fibroblasts. The cells of the epidermis are fixed, while fibroblasts are very mobile and propagate rapidly, filling a wound and creating a scar. To put it simply, if you create an environment that will make it possible not only for fibroblasts to propagate but also for the epidermis, then you can restore skin to its normal state.

2045: This is basically a medium?

B.G.: In some sense, yes! The components of this gel contain substances of the necessary viscosity to stimulate the movement of cells in the right direction. Even cells that propagate only around the edges in normal conditions open up, move around, and create hotbeds of growth.

2045: As we talk about growing skin and its component parts, the film “Terminator” comes to mind, in which artificial bones were covered in skin that restored itself, that could regenerate.

B.G.: For the skin of a cyborg, you simply need to create a nutrition system. And basically . . . we are not really complex in design! There are only a few systems: the circulatory system carries oxygen and nutrients; the excretory system extirpates the waste. The rest is end-effectors. To begin we can create a very simple living organism—then, later, more complex systems.

Which cells do we take? We can create systems of nerve cells. There are some very interesting cells in the heart that possess energy and generate it. When you observe the growth of an embryo, the first thing you see is a beat, a heart contraction. Those are the very cells I’m talking about. If we figure out how to reproduce a heartbeat—and we’re studying how to do that—at first we will have elementary organisms; small, very simple ones. Then we will gradually replace everything we possibly can in the human body.

2045: Is it possible to reach the point that skin will exist indefinitely in symbiosis with some kind of system that supports it?

B.G.: In principle, yes! It’s all about the support system. Every cell has a defined development cycle . . .

But if you grow them in a membrane that lets nutrients pass through, and if you deliver certain nutrients from the bottom, then cells will begin to grow not only on the surface but also up, creating many layers. A multi-layer system will grow that can live a long time. I have such systems sitting in my cupboard. All of that can be done. But the medium must be nutritional, contain growth factors, and be at the corresponding temperature. Many conditions are required.

2045: Is it possible to genetically modify skin to make it, for instance, more resistant to chemical agents?

B.G.: It’s possible that you could do that by way of embryo manipulation. You have to introduce the necessary genetic material at an early stage of development. How and which kind, we don’t know yet. But ethical questions come into play here.

2045: What about at a later age—is it possible to activate one or another gene? Or to modify the genes of someone who is already an adult?

B.G.: It’s difficult for an adult. You can implant modified cells. Such attempts are being made. In the end, I think that cells will be extracted from the body, various genes will be put in and diseases will be treated using those genes.

2045: Or make it so that the skin changes color, like that of a chameleon.

B.G.: Skin like that of a chameleon . . . good idea, I’ll try it! Yes, certain very simple creatures possess mechanisms that higher animals do not have. Or the complete regeneration of limbs, a capability that is present in amphibians—lizards and salamanders. Regeneration begins immediately in them—that is precisely what we are trying to achieve now with our device. Regeneration begins in them, and what’s more it’s systemic—all their systems begin to regenerate: the bone, muscles, skin.

2045: Why do you think humans did not evolve such a capability?

B.G.: Perhaps just by chance! There is a great deal to study and observe in amphibians. They are completely different organisms from us. Attempts to use regeneration-associated genes and plant them in other cells may end up being successful. Immortality- and regeneration-associated genes are the most important things under research today.

2045: If you imagine a center that would bring together various cellular technologies . . .

B.G.: That is our dream! We dream of building such a center!

2045: So demand exists for such a place? Where do you think it could be built?

B.G.: You won’t find a better location than Pushchino! We have biochemical labs as well as physiological ones, and we have very strong medical labs. People of many different disciplines have congregated here—doctors, biophysicists, biochemists, mathematicians, theorists, embryologists. Such a center is just the right kind of place to solve difficult but interesting problems.