Jalila Essaïdi (born 1980) is a Dutch artist and entrepreneur based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Essaïdi is specialized in the fields of bio-based materials and biological arts (bio-art).

Bulletproof Skin

She is best known for her work ‘2.6g 329m/s’, also known as ‘Bulletproof Skin’, a project that achieved bioengineered bulletproof human skin. This project combined in vitro human skin with spider silk from genetically modified organisms to create a material that stops a slow-speed bullet. With this work, she explores social, political, ethical and cultural issues concerning safety in a (bio)technical world and with Bulletproof Skin she received the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award in 2010 and an Honorary Mention in category Hybrid Art of the Prix Ars Electronica in 2012.

Essaïdi and the Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum are working together to explore if  Bulletproof Skin can be used to treat skin with burns and bedsores.

Manure-derived plastic

With her recent work, Mestic®, she has developed processes and technologies to convert dairy cow manure into cellulose acetate. This solution turns the existing agricultural problem of waste excess into a limitless source of raw material. With this method, the agricultural sector can abide the (inter)national policy and it is possible to keep their investment (cows). This method has a small ecological footprint compared to existing sources such as wood, starch or beets: no investment is needed in agricultural land to grow the biomass crops. Mestic® generates new sustainable materials that can be used by the local industry.

With Mestic® she won the H&M Global Change Award in 2016, in 2018 she won the Chivas Venture and Clim@ GGF.

BioArt Laboratories

Jalila is president and founder of Stichting BioArt Laboratories, a unique non-profit social organization based in Eindhoven that gives international talents of the future the possibility to discover limitless possibilities in a world with a growing interest in biotechnology and life sciences

BioArt Laboratories gives access to a creative hybrid laboratory en tools and knowledge of bioscience.

In 2013 Jalila Essaïdi is chosen by Brabants Kenniscentrum voor Kunst en Cultuur to be a high potential talent, in 2017 by Frits Magazine as the most influential woman in the region and she is chosen to be one of the ‘Inspiring 50’ women of the Netherlands.

Jalila Essaïdi is Ambassador of the Dutch Designweek 2019.

Website Jalila Essaïdi.