The US Air Force is in search for wolverine like powers to make use in future personnel to heal wounds instantly.
The US Air-Force is exploring cellular reprogramming to create characters like that of the X-Men series, cellular reprogramming can heal five times faster than what naturally occurs with the human body for wounds, injuries, burns picked in battle fields.
The research is looking into cell programming that modifies its genome using proteins, called transcription factors which helps in stopping different genes to regulate activities such as cell division and growth, and cell migration and organization.
There might be a possible use of ‘spray-on’ bandage to apply the transcriptions directly to the wounds to transform the exposed muscle cells into surface skin cells which covers the wound as a result it heals faster.
One of those involved in the research is Dr. Indika Rajapakse, associate professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics, and of mathematics, at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Indika Rajapakse is involved in the research and is using a live cell imaging microscope for the project, which will hold the purpose to see high-resolution views inside live cells for a better understanding of the wound-healing process.
Dr. Indika Rajapakse wrote in a press release: “There are amazing opportunities in the United States, that you don’t see in the rest of the world, to humanize science and meet critical needs in medicine.”
Rajapakse’s statement said: “This method would convert exposed deep muscle cells into surface skin cells, which would mean a higher probability of successful healing than the current methods of skin grafting.
“We have the resources to do this, and it is our obligation to take full advantage of them,” he also added.
Rajapakse with his team of researchers have come up with a developed data guided algorithm which thus mathematically identifies the accurate transcription factors further predicting the points in the cell cycle for the best possible change.
Program officer for AFOSR’s Dynamical Systems and Control Theory portfolio, Dr. Frederick Leve, said: “It’s rare that mathematics provides such promising results so quickly.
“It usually takes decades for basic math research to make it into models which can be applied to a technology.”