No, you didn't read the title wrong! Today's post is about an interesting article I found recently that describes how a team of scientists from the University of New Mexico have successfully managed to create what are being described as "zombie" cells.
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| A picture of a "Zombie" cell taken using Scanning Electron Microscopy. Taken from www.naharnet.com 17.02.2013. |
Like their Hollywood counterparts, "zombie" cells are the relic of a cell that was once living but continues to perform the behaviours that living cells do. I have posted the link to the article below but briefly here is what is described. This remarkable feat has been achieved by coating living cells in silicilic acid then heating the cells to 400 degrees Celsius so the former biological material is destroyed (or killed) and the silica replica (or "zombie" cells) is left in its place. The article goes on to describe that the initial findings from this experiment has shown that the silica "zombie" cells out perform the cells they were originally cast from.
The article that was posted by Naharnet this month is actually based off of a paper that was published in PNAS in October of last year (link below) Kaehr et al.. Keahr and others were inspired to conduct this research because they were inspired by the naturally occurring silica structures that are produced by some organisms in particular, diatoms. Silica structures are inorganic meaning they can withstand conditions that biological material cannot but as they are created by organisms and therefore have the complexity in structure inherent to biological structures. This research therefore has broad practical implications for advancing research and development into better nanomaterials.
So for now you can put aside your mental images of mad scientists slaving in a dungeon to create damned reanimations bringing forth the apocalypse with "zombie" cells. This research is marvelous but surely does not signal an impending zombie plague.
Until next time,
Jay
Press Release
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/72238-biologists-create-zombie-cells-which-outperform-living-counterparts
Paper
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/43/17336.abstract
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