What is the Upgrade?
Part 3: The Big Hack
In early Oct 2016, I posted a summary of an idea to the biohack.me forums. The idea had been in my head getting worked and reworked since getting out of school the previous summer. I had been inspired by another biohackers attempt at creating a transdermal USB device for storing digital information inside the human body. Thinking about the potential for replacing certain areas with an interface for a body-wide system. I saw this as a way to combine both ideas from part 1 of this series. It could both function as a delivery vehicle for genetic engineering and for nervous system modulation. Possibly much more if designed in a way to allow others to add on to its capabilities. So over the beginning of the new school year, I worked on simple visuals to aid in understanding the project, gathered research on how to make this feasible, and then I posted a summary of the first step to making this a reality. The Big Hack Part 1: Coating. (I really should think of better names for things)
Skin
The skin is actually a really complex organ full of different types of cells, and connective tissue. It also most importantly for our purpose creates a barrier between you and all the things trying to kill you. If you are going to access the body then you need to deal with the fact that you’ve broken through your body's first line of defense. Now all the bacteria in the air and growing on the surface of you have a ticket in to do as much damage as they can. This is why the area around IV’s, needles, and cuts need to be kept clean. If you’re going to attempt to replace the skin without accounting for this then your essentially walking around with an open wound 24/7. This is where bioactive coatings come into play.
Your body is made up of more than just cells. Surrounding all cells in your body is this complex web of proteins and polysaccharides. This is called the extracellular matrix (ECM). The ECM is responsible for many things like cell to cell signaling, physical support, and most important for us cellular adhesion.
There are two main things cells essentially “stick” to in your body. One is sticking to other cells, the other is by sticking to the ECM. The proteins used to do this are called CAMs(cell adhesion molecules). The different ways cells stick to things can be broken down into three categories: tight junctions, anchoring junctions, and gap junctions.
If you want to permanently replace the skin with a foreign object then your best bet at making sure that the surrounding cells stick to that object. This makes sure that the barrier between your insides and your outsides is maintained.
This was the idea behind the forum post. I was advocating for a new coating containing different elements all aimed at promoting cellular adhesion to the foreign object. In the post, I outline a fairly simple protocol based on my understanding of Justin Atkin’s video.
COATINGS:
The coatings that I am currently working on is composed of a mixture of the following :
Chitin (Is known to help speed the healing process )
Chitosan
Hydroxyapatite
Collagen( also helps speed healing and is a large part of the skin)
Fibrinogen ( to help blood clot and form a scab)
This is what I originally posted about the materials in use for making sure that the cells adhere to the substrate. Above it, I had posted a long list of links to research about the benefits of each one. Although none of the links were labeled and the only way to find out what the papers were talking about was to actually click each one and see. That was a huge mistake on my part.
The procedure in itself is quite a simple idea take off the skin and shove some technology in its place , but to be effective it requires much more than that.
1. To start you are going to want to reduce blood flow by whatever your preferred means are so long it doesn’t interfere with anesthesia
2. Apply local anesthesia to the area where the implant will be and allow it time to fully numb the area.
3. Remove the skin as one would if he was getting scarification
4.create the necessary microscopic holes in the flesh beneath
5. place the technology (which have live epithelial cells bound/ grafted/ whatever you want to call it to it) in the area where the skin was.
6. Bandage
7. Wait for it to heal
This was the procedure I proposed. This explanation was a complete failure on my part. I failed to adequately explain what I meant a visual diagram would’ve been immensely helpful in explaining what I meant. The final part of the post explained the way someone would go about coating a potential implant.
COATING PROCESS
1. Apply chitosan solution to area where the implant will interface with the body or touch skin.
2. Allow it to dry
3. Repeat steps 1, and 2, 4 times.
4. Set in 1mol of Sodium Hydroxide.
5. After it has set and is dry, dip in dilute solution of Sodium Silicate.
6. Allow it to dry.
7. Repeat 5 & 6.
8. Apply gel with fibrinogen, collagen, chitin, and a minuscule amount of hydroxyapatite suspended inside of it.
9. Allow it to evaporate.
10. Repeat 8 & 9.
I posted this expecting to be a somewhat big post. But I had no idea how big this post would get over the next few weeks.
Continued in part 4
