Not quite happy with your ears? Tempted by a more aquiline nose? Andrew Pelling can help you grow new ones - by cultivating your body's own cells inside an apple. The Canadian biohacker has open-sourced instructions for augmenting human biology using everyday materials - a movement he is calling "open-source wetware". And he has already grown human cells in a Macintosh apple, with help from his wife who cut the fruit into shape. "We take the structure and implant the apple under the skin, and the body takes care of it," Pelling tells WIRED. "Under the skin you get collagen formation, blood vessels grow, you get skin cells without us doing anything." So far, his experiments have largely involved mice. But are they safe? "The mice didn't die," he says.
"People are already implanting electronics in themselves in hacker spaces, so why freak out at the idea of implanting an apple?" Pelling, who runs his own lab - The Pelling Lab for Biophysical Manipulation - at the University of Ottawa, says. "We've been modifying biology in our bodies forever. What I'm doing with ears is not new. I'm just trying to make it more accessible. There are obvious medical and regenerative-medicine aspects, but I'm more interested in the body-modification side - cosmetics. If you need an implant - an ear, a nose - why should that asethetic be dictated by the company that's created it? Why shouldn't you control the appearance, by doing it yourself or commissioning someone to make an organ?"
Pelling, one of this year's TED Fellows, recently presented his work at the recent TED conference in Vancouver. His lab team of 15 collaborates with tissue engineers and neurosurgeons, and a spinoff company, Spiderwort, sells open-source kits for home users. So far, the reaction from health agencies towards his lab-grown body parts has been positive, he says. "The public health agency in Canada loves it, and they're being helpful. Think of it as augmented biology - a natural extension of tattooing, implants, films on your teeth. It's just another modification."
A significant limitation to the growth of biohacking has been the cost of equipment. Pelling sources machines from dumpsters. "I love looking through people's garbage - garbage is a great way to be creative," he says. "The major limitation has been the need for a CO2 incubator, a warm box. I work with bio-artists who find that companies selling the equipment will double the price when they know what it's being used for.
"Instead, I found the equipment in the garbage, built my incubator, open-sourced it, and found huge demand for it. We put all the instructions online as open source, and we're developing kits to make it easy for anyone with a sink and soldering iron to make them at home." His Arduino-based kit, he says, will cost around CA$500 (£250).
So what comes after apple-based ears? "Touch is such an intimate thing," Pelling says. "Could you, say, change the textures of your skin to build an erogenous interaction using materials that have textures you find pleasing? We're looking at asparagus, fennel, mushroom... And flower petals are on the horizon."
The TED Fellows programme began in 2009, since when there have been 400 Fellows from 90 countries. Videos on TED.com of Fellows' talks have had 111m views.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
