DARPA eyes ‘smart’ blood cells for tougher troops • The Register

Look to science fiction and you’ll find plenty of pathways to create super soldiers. There’s cloning or genetic engineering. If that fails, you could try in-utero enhancements, or maybe some cybernetic augmentation. DARPA has a different idea for the real world: inject ’em up with super blood.

Last week, the Pentagon’s research arm posted a special notice for what it’s calling the Smart-Red Blood Cells (Smart-RBC) program. Designed to generate interest among researchers, this release precedes a formal request for proposals, which the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) told us may come in the next few weeks. 

There are good reasons for the secrecy, as a read of the special notice makes the program goals pretty clear – and pretty shocking given how these sorts of experiments tend to turn out, at least in books and movies.

According to the program’s stated goals, DARPA is looking to “engineer red blood cells to contain novel biological features that can safely and reliably modify human physiology.” In the short term, DARPA wants these bio-engineered red blood cells to improve human performance (think faster recovery times, more resistance to lactic acid buildup that causes muscle soreness, improved cardiovascular fitness, and the like) and “enhanced hemostasis,” i.e., better blood clotting.

But that’s just the start. DARPA wants its smart red blood cells (SRBCs) to eventually offer super soldiers improved temperature regulation in extreme environments and improved altitude acclimation, as well as the ability to create “universal blood” and “more resilient blood products.”

How does DARPA intend to do this, you may ask? Details are scarce, and, since the agency declined to answer questions about the program, it’s not clear how far along development of such technologies may be. However, some of the how is spelled out in the notice, albeit abstractly. 

“SRBCs will be engineered to contain additional biological circuits,” DARPA explained. The researchers want circuits consisting of three layers with the ability to sense “extracellular biomarkers,” decide what to do with that information, and “act by creating effector molecules that can modify metabolism or physiology.” 

DARPA envisions the eventual Smart-RBC program lasting 36 months across two 18-month phases. The first will see teams demonstrate their ability to engineer the stem cells that become red blood cells, “such that the circuit parts are produced and positioned during differentiation and that they are retained” as they mature. The second phase will see teams “demonstrate functionality and complete the program with a capability demo.” 

It’s not clear whether that demo will involve human test subjects – that’s something we asked, but didn’t get an answer on. Also left mysterious is how those SRBCs might get injected and whether DARPA envisions a temporary boost of superpowers or permanent enhancement. 

For now, soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors will have to settle for being limited by their existing human physiology, as weak as it may be. ®