Underneath the rubbery skin of a squid, you’ll find a community of cells and muscles that work together to create the color and texture changes these animals are known for. This buzzing cellular network is difficult to study, however, and marine biologists and other researchers failed to cultivate a squid’s skin cells in a laboratory setting for decades.
Now, thanks to recent work done at the University of California, Irvine, a workaround for culturing similar skin cells has been achieved.
How Squid Change Color
The researchers used genetic engineering, advanced 3D microscopy and computational modeling to generate and study human cell cultures with tunable transparency. They believe their engineered cells will shed light on how wild squids turn transparent — and potentially also offer new medical imaging methods.
