Collagen’s big break may have been getting pumped into Hollywood starlets, but the coveted protein does a lot more than inflate lips and erase wrinkles. The versatile goo gives structure and elasticity to skin, bones, and internal organs. But because scientists hadn’t succeeded in synthesizing the human version, doctors used the potentially pathogen-laden stuff extracted from bovines. Researchers have finally figured out how to mimic it, and its possible uses go way beyond kissability.
Like all proteins, collagen is a polymer, a chain of amino acids. But it’s really complicated: three helical structures of about 1,000 amino acids each. “So we relied on a self-assembly trick,” says Ronald Raines, the University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemist who led the research. His team creates snippets of the helices and chemically tweaks the ends to make them sticky. The pieces join to form collagen strands longer than natural ones – very useful for biomedical, nanotech, and (of course) cosmetic applications.
Now Raines hopes to experiment with laser tissue welding, a process in which collagen is applied to either side of a cut and melted together to speed healing. Currently, bovine collagen works on minor lacerations, but Raines thinks his synthetic version could be used to solder larger cuts and burns.
On the nanotech side, Raines’ team plans to coat collagen fibers with gold or silver to create nanowires that can relay messages from inside the body – useful for virus detection. Someday, starlets with bee-stung lips might be our early-warning system against bird flu.
- Sonia Zjawinski
credit Getty Images
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