Can Wool Sweaters Be Spun Without Sheep?
VISION: Harvest fiber grown on a synthetic skin to reduce the environmental impact of wool and fur production.
TEAM: Diana Eusebio, Erin Kirchner, Grace Kwon, Rachel Rusk, and Sydney Sieh-Takata
SCHOOL: Maryland Institute College of Art (2018)
More than 100 million animals are killed annually for their fur, feathers, and scales.
Students from Maryland Institute College of Art tried to imagine a way to grow wool and fur without animals. The team found a study on baldness by a team of Japanese biologists who reported that human hair follicles could thrive and grow when embedded in nude patches of mouse skin. Taking the idea forward, the team imagined implanting animal follicle cells into a microfluidic device that could act as a synthetic skin, capable of nourishing and growing wool and fur. The device, a mat of plastic, would house tiny capillaries to flow fluid and nutrients throughout the wool system.
As a first application, the students envisioned growing lawns of fur on racks of microfluidic sheets. When the fibers grow to length, workers shear them just as they would sheep. Kerasynth could grow exotic furs like panther, leopard, or even fur from extinct animals like wooly mammoths by using bioengineered cells. Because the animal is completely removed from production, Kerasynth wool and fur avoid the ethical and environmental issues associated with industrial farming.
As a second application, Kerasynth proposed tailoring the microfluidic sheets into jacket linings that could themselves grow into coats made of furs and feathers, even in new colors and textures.
“There is potential for the consumer to wear Kerasynth as it grows. And there is potential for wearers to customize garments by modifying hair length and growth patterns,” said the Kerasynth team. “Has fashion ever before come close to achieving this type of dynamism?”
