Garments made with the skin pigment melanin provide a natural, alternative form of sun protection in this speculative biofabrication project by recent Central Saint Martins graduate Maca Barrera.
The Melwear project imagines a future where humans wear a "second skin" embedded with bacteria-derived melanin instead of using conventional chemical sunscreens, which typically contain ingredients that can be harmful to the environment.
The thin suit replicates and amplifies the role that melanin already plays within our skin, providing a barrier against the sun's UV radiation.
Melwear is a speculative project imagining the future of sun protection
Developed as part of Barrera's graduate degree in biodesign, Melwear is based on two emerging technologies: the biosynthesis of melanin within bacteria and the bioprinting of artificial tissues with living cells. Synthetic biologists are currently growing melanin-producing bacteria in labs and experimenting with various ways to apply or extract the pigment, sometimes using genetic engineering to improve yields.
Although melanin is produced naturally in many species ? including some fungi and vegetables as well as animals ? the fast-growing nature of bacteria affords an opportunity for the pigment to be cheaply mass-produced.
The bioprinted garments would contain the natural pigment melanin
It can then be used as a biocompatible and biodegradable replacement for toxic synthetic dyes ? as pioneered by bacterial dying company Col...