Chennai: To the rest of the world, collagen is the wonder protein that makes lips plumper, bones stronger, hair longer, and eases the march of time. The protein, found in the body’s connective tissue, bones and cartilage, is now in moisturisers, gummies, supplements, powders and injectable fillers. But at the Central Leather Research Institute in Chennai, this elixir of youth is in dressings for diabetic wounds and aortic valves. And that’s not all—scientists are also experimenting with making vegan collagen.
From providing gloves for the Indian Army to making ‘vegan’ leather bags from mango pulp, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) has gone far beyond its initial mandate of developing leather products. Its research is now proving biomedical solutions for diabetics, burn patients and cancer survivors.
CLRI has been at the heart of supporting the leather industry since its inception in 1948 when it was set up to stop the drain of raw materials from India. At the time of Independence, India was exporting cattle skin and hide, and importing finished products.
While it continues to collaborate with industries to improve leather quality and reduce the pollution caused by the industry, CLRI scientists have also delved into developing biomedical applications with collagen (a byproduct of leather production) and responding to the growing demand for vegan alternatives.
The relationship between CLRI and collagen is historic.
Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body. It accounts for about 30 per cent of the total protein and is the primary building block of your body’s skin, muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues. In 1954, it was CLRI that provided purified samples of collagen to GN Ramachandran at the University of Madras, which led to the discovery of its triple helix structure.
The feat was just as pathbreaking as the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick.
“It is a case of the Nobel Prize not finding its master,” said Balram Madhan, senior principal scientist and head of the institute’s Centre for Academic & Research Excellence (CARE).
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Cosmetics to diabetes
Within a few years, the collagen cosmetic craze erupted, taking its market from an estimated $3.5 billion in 2018 to $8.36 billion in 2020. It is predicted to double to $16.70 billion by 2028. But Madan and his team aren’t interested in the allure of beauty.
At CLRI, the focus is on using the wonder protein to make effective and affordable materials for the treatment of chronic wounds.
“Today, diabetic foot ulcers are one of the major [medical] burdens in the country. And India requires the indigenous development of such materials to meet the challenges associated with the wound burden so that we can avoid amputations,” said Madhan.
Technology developed by the CLRI is transferred to private companies for commercial production. One of the recently transferred technologies is called Seeskin, which is used for various applications, including healing diabetic foot ulcers. Available for less than Rs 300, Madhan said it’s ideal for use on stubborn wounds that can otherwise lead to sepsis.
“We are also developing an aortic valve based on collagen. We make collagen membranes using goat skin,” he said.
The team has received a grant from the Department of Science and Technology and is working with cardiologists to develop the aortic valve. Mechanical valves are present in the market, but clinicians prefer to work with collagen-based membranes as the immune reaction is low.
But these valves can cost up to $30,000 if they have to be imported.
“We are targeting to make it affordable for the Indian population. Today, more than 300,000 people would require such valve replacement surgeries, but unfortunately, only about 3,000 can actually afford it,” said Madhan.
The team is also making similar membranes suitable for cardiac patch applications. These materials, coated with anticancer drugs, can also be used after tumour surgeries as they could help heal internal tissue.
There is a sense of urgency and purpose in the ongoing research. It is imperative for scientists to develop collagen membranes from non-animal sources.
Countries in Europe are already working on developing cruelty-free recombinant collagen extracted from bacteria, which will negate the need to source protein from animals. “As soon as they become successful, they will begin to build a narrative against animal-derived collagens and impose restrictions on their import and use. We should be technology ready before that happens,” said Madhan.
For now, they’ve developed collagen peptides from animal hide. “We are in a position to develop highly purified versions of it.”
But he wants to take it a step further by developing vegan collagen derived from genetically engineered microbes in the form of a protein drink. This can be consumed by those who are averse to drinking animal-derived products.
“Collagen of course is derived from animal sources. So as an alternative, one of our colleagues has been working on developing vegan collagen proteins in recombinant systems such as e coli and yeast,” he explained.
According to N Ayyadurai, principal scientist at the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, there is an added advantage of being able to derive vegan collagen from microbes. “Unlike animal-derived collagen, we can tweak the properties of the vegan collagen according to our needs.”
Recombinant collagen is developed by genetically modifying bacteria to produce the desired proteins. The genetic ‘code’ needed to develop them can be edited to fine-tune the exact configuration of proteins that scientists want.
These scientific forays are in keeping with CLRI’s history of being on top of market trends. Way back in 1964, the institute organised India’s first International Leather Fair and Leather Fashion Show in 1964. In 1995, it launched its Leather Technology mission, which included a systematic framework to collect leather from fallen stray animals, improve leather processing technologies, and train artisans in the newest technologies available.
But one of its most significant milestones was innovating technologies to purify wastewater from leather treatment plants that prevented the Supreme Court-ordered shutdown of hundreds of tanneries in Tamil Nadu in 1995.
Despite being at the heart of the leather industry, CLRI has branched out into biomedical applications, and Madhan’s team and its work on collagen isn’t the only department going beyond its scope.
Helping the body heal
The Biological Materials department is developing nanomaterials from collagen that can not only help heal wounds but also develop smart drugs to selectively target cancer tumours. This ambitious project had a rather humble beginning. Department head and senior principal scientist K Purna Sai was tasked with researching ways to restore damage to the rawhide of dead animals, which are caused as a result of small injuries or cuts that the animal may have suffered from when alive.
“These cuts and scars would affect the quality of leather. We were trying to work on solutions to mask these injuries and damages or breaks in the skin to make it more suitable for the leather industry,” said Sai.
But then CLRI began to wonder why work on treating dead animal skin when there are so many people who are affected by scars, burns and ‘abnormal’ wounds that can be healed by the body itself—with a nudge from collagen.
Now, the lab takes samples from hospitals in Chennai to understand why burn scars, and diabetic ulcers occur, and what genes are behind abnormal wounds, which take much longer than normal to heal.
The lab’s raw material is the trimmed edges of animal skins that are discarded when they are cut into uniform pieces for leather. Collagen extracted from these trimmings is used as a base material to design nanomaterials for drug delivery, Sai explained. Her team is trying to develop smart nanomaterials that can ultimately “sense” their surroundings before activating themselves.
The design of the biomaterial is that the collagen coat or a shield dissolves only when it reaches the target region — such as a tumour cell.
“So the drug for example only gets activated when it reaches a particular pH level. In that way, the dose can also be reduced and the drug can reach its intended target,” she said.
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Sustainable vegan leather
For decades, leather products have dominated the fashion industry with skin from snakes, crocodiles, and lamb selling at a premium. But vegan leather is poised to take over—it hits all the right notes with claims of being eco-friendly and sustainable.
At first glance, vegan leather may be in conflict with what CLRI was built to do. But P Thanikaivelan, chief scientist and head of the Advanced Materials Laboratory, sees this as an opportunity.
“Who better to make leather-like products than the leather industry experts?” Thanikaivelan said.
And with plastic increasingly being passed off as faux leather, it’s all the more important for more research into sustainable alternative sources.
Thalaikelvan’s team was approached by Mumbai-based startup Aamati Green Private Limited to do just that. They brought leather-like products to CLRI, made by a company in The Netherlands. The raw material however was not animal skin but mangoes.
The quality of the leather product wasn’t that good. “It had a foul smell. We promised them that not only could we produce better quality products, we could also get rid of the unpleasant smell,” said Thalaikelvan.
Sourcing mango was not a hurdle. The startup had tonnes of expired tins of mango pulp, some of them dating back three years.
“During mango harvests, a certain amount of mangoes are wasted because of how they look. Farmers are looking for some applications for these mangoes, as otherwise they simply get thrown away,” he said.
Thalaikelvan delivered on his promise of producing better-quality bags. CLRI’s range of handbags, dainty slings and sleek purses all dyed in red, green, blue and other colours are chic and elegant. What’s more, they have a natural fruity fragrance.
In their quest to make vegan leather, CLRI researchers have been working with agro-waste as well.
“In India, about 300 tonnes of stubble is burned every year in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, which is a huge problem for air pollution,” said Sundarapandiyan, scientist at the Leather Process Technology Department.
To tackle this problem, his team has developed a technology to prepare leather-like materials called pseudo-corin from agricultural waste.
“We have collected agricultural waste from different regions. This material is suitable for making lifestyle products like leather bags, shoes, and furniture upholstery,” he said.
The cost of the material is less than that of leather, and unlike most synthetic leathers it does not use any non-biodegradable polymers.
And Though vegan leather is the cool new kid on the fashion block, CLRI scientists say it won’t replace the genuine product.
“In my perspective, vegan leather is not an alternative to genuine leather. Because the latter has its own market. Moreover, there is a question of availability of the raw materials, because leather is a byproduct of the meat industry,” Thanikaivelan said.
But it is an excellent alternative to synthetic leather and has the potential to capture a good portion of the synthetic leather market.
These ventures into alternative forms of leather do not mean that the institute has strayed from its mandate. CLRI has been working on developing a new shoe sizing standard for Indian feet and has conducted a large-scale survey. It’s part of the government’s decision to introduce regulations and standards for Indian-made footwear.
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Animal leather here to stay
At first glance, CLRI’s chemical laboratory with its flasks, test tubes and petri dishes, is not different from any other lab. What stands out are the stray pieces of raw leather and various iterations of gloves stacked on shelves. Chief scientist Nishad Fatima is responding to the Prime Minister’s call for an ‘atmanirbhar Bharat’ by developing specialised leather gloves that protect soldiers at the Siachen glacier from the freezing temperatures.
“It’s well known that the temperatures there drop to even as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius. They face very harsh, practically inhabitable conditions. Yet, they are there defending our nation,” she said.
Leather gloves are already known to be able to give very good protection against cold temperatures, but the team wanted to enhance their performance to make it suitable for the Indian Army. The design ensures that the soldiers do not lose any dexterity because of the gloves. The team patented the chemicals required to enhance the gloves and the design.
“The price of the imported gloves was about Rs 15,000, and our manufacturing partners have fixed the price at about Rs 3,500,” said Fatima.
The scientists at CLRI pointed out that no animal is ever killed just for the sake of its leather.
“It is always for the sake of meat. An animal is always reared and as a byproduct of the meat industry leather is produced. We are actually converting a waste product of one industry into a value-added product,” Fatima added.
Amid regular calls from animal rights groups to boycott the use of leather, researchers at the institute insist that it is a sustainable material. Within the walls of the institute, scientists are wary of the rise in cow vigilantism.
“To avoid getting embroiled in controversies, researchers now use the term ‘bovine’ instead of cattle,” said one scientist.
But they are confident that leather is here to stay.
“Nothing can really replace the structures that nature has given us. We can get close to mimicking collagen, for example, but the way that nature creates crosslinks is unique,” said Madhan.
The availability of the skin as a byproduct is a major advantage that the industry has—not just in India, but all over the world. It’s why good quality, non-plastic sustainable vegan leather products can be as expensive as leather.
“Vegan leather targets a high-end market of premium product customers. The price of leather cannot be rivalled by fruits like mangoes because they are seasonal. Meat is being produced all year round,” said Thakaivelan.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)