Jalila Essaïdi

Contributor / Speaker

Jalila Essaïdi 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).

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. The impact of this international collaborative project, which Essaïdi initiated between multiple universities, resulted in intellectual property, which is the basis for new innovative cosmetic, medical, textile, or industrial applications.

In 2010 Essaïdi was a recipient of the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award for her project ‘bulletproof skin’. In 2013 Essaïdi won the nomination by the BKKC for high potential talent. Essaïdi’s projects have been covered by Associated Press, Reuters, CNN and the BBC, among numerous others, and she has subsequently given interviews, lectures and presentations all over the world among world-class speakers such as Eric Schmidt (CEO Alphabet/Google), Tim Cook (CEO Apple) and Travis Kalanick (CEO Uber). Recent exhibitions include Victory and Albert Museum, London; State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; NOMA, New Orleans; Power station of Art, Shanghai.

With Mestic® Essaidi won the H&M Global Change Award in 2017. In 2018 she received the Chivas Venture Award for social entrepreneurship and also won the Clim@ competition of the Green for Growth Fund initiated by the European Investment bank. In 2019 Essaïdi was a finalist for the EU prize for women innovators by the European Commission. Essaïdi is the CEO of Inspidere B.V., a biotech company based in Brainport region Eindhoven. She has several patents in her name for different inventions, showing her expertise in multiple industries.

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Jalila Essaïdi

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