h/t to David Haith on Dorset Humanists https://www.facebook.com/groups/dorsethumanists/permalink/10152547756058943/?stream_ref=2
http://www.nature.com/news/acid-bath-offers-easy-path-to-stem-cells-1.14600
Cells isolated from newborn mice lose their identity on exposure to mildly acidic conditions. Remarkably, instead of triggering cell death or tumour growth, as might be expected, a new cell state emerges that exhibits an unprecedented potential for differentiation into every possible cell type.
http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/505622a?utm_campaign=readcube_access&utm_source=nature.com&utm_medium=purchase_option&utm_content=thumb_version
I'm proud to say that I was at a conference at which Ian Wilmot announced 'Dolly the Sheep' a few weeks after his paper in Nature was published: http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/385810a0 - the above Haruko Obokata paper could have similar profound implications for science.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7485/full/nature12968.html original article by Haruko Obokata (behind paywall) - stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP)
http://bcove.me/easi4d8p Human skin cells have been turned into stem cells .... (play fullscreen)
http://bcove.me/xmyex5vq ....which have the potential to develop into fully-formed embryos, simply by bathing them in weak citric acid for half an hour. (play fullscreen)
^^ this is the most extraordinary thing I'v seen in years!!! ^^
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25967136 - Obakata to win Nobel Prize?
Sunday, 9 February 2014
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs
http://www.ted.com Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs -- from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that "prints" human tissue.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Anthony Atala's lab grows human organs -- muscles, blood vessels and bladders
Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs -- from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that "prints" human tissue.
About Anthony Atala
Anthony Atala asks, "Can we grow organs instead of transplanting them?" His lab at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is doing just that -- engineering tissues and whole… Full bio and more links
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Scientists Seek To Mimic Healing Powers Of Salamanders In Humans
source: Nature 460, 60-65 (2 July 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature08152
During limb regeneration adult tissue is converted into a zone of undifferentiated progenitors called the blastema that reforms the diverse tissues of the limb. Previous experiments have led to wide acceptance that limb tissues dedifferentiate to form pluripotent cells. Here we have reexamined this question using an integrated GFP transgene to track the major limb tissues during limb regeneration in the salamanderAmbystoma mexicanum (the axolotl). Surprisingly, we find that each tissue produces progenitor cells with restricted potential. Therefore, the blastema is a heterogeneous collection of restricted progenitor cells. On the basis of these findings, we further demonstrate that positional identity is a cell-type-specific property of blastema cells, in which cartilage-derived blastema cells harbour positional identity but Schwann-derived cells do not. Our results show that the complex phenomenon of limb regeneration can be achieved without complete dedifferentiation to a pluripotent state, a conclusion with important implications for regenerative medicine.
Main Author: Malcolm Maden, University of Florida
| Scientists Seek To Mimic Healing Powers Of Salamanders In Humans | 18 Views |
| posted on Friday, July 03, 2009 |  |
| SALAMANDERS, REGENERATIVE WONDERS, HEAL LIKE MAMMALS, PEOPLE physorg.com July 1st, 2009 Original Link The salamander is a superhero of regeneration, able to replace lost limbs, damaged lungs, sliced spinal cord -- even bits of lopped-off brain. But it turns out that remarkable ability isn't so mysterious after all -- suggesting that researchers could learn how to replicate it in people. Scientists had long credited the diminutive amphibious creature's outsized capabilities to "pluripotent" cells that, like human embryonic stem cells, have the uncanny ability to morph into whatever appendage, organ or tissue happens to be needed or due for a replacement. But in a paper set to appear Thursday in the journal Nature, a team of seven researchers, including a University of Florida zoologist, debunks that notion. Based on experiments on genetically modified axolotl salamanders, the researchers show that cells from the salamander's different tissues retain the "memory" of those tissues when they regenerate, contributing with few exceptions only to the same type of tissue from whence they came. Standard mammal stem cells operate the same way, albeit with far less dramatic results -- they can heal wounds or knit bone together, but not regenerate a limb or rebuild a spinal cord. What's exciting about the new findings is they suggest that harnessing the salamander's regenerative wonders is at least within the realm of possibility for human medical science. "I think it's more mammal-like than was ever expected," said Malcolm Maden, a professor of biology, member of the UF Genetics Institute, and author of the paper. "It gives you more hope for being able to someday regenerate individual tissues in people." Also, the salamanders heal perfectly, without any scars whatsoever, another ability people would like to learn how to mimic, Maden said. Axolotl salamanders, originally native to only one lake in central Mexico, are evolutionary oddities that become sexually reproducing adults while still in their larval stage. They are useful scientific models for studying regeneration because, unlike other salamanders, they can be bred in captivity and have large embryos that are easy to work on. When an axolotl loses, for example, a leg, a small bump forms over the injury called a blastema. It takes only about three weeks for this blastema to transform into a new, fully functioning replacement leg -- not long considering the animals can live 12 or more years. |
Saturday, 11 October 2008
Hand transplant shows lost limbs are never forgotten
- 17:36 09 October 2008
- NewScientist.com news service
- Ewen Callaway
Now a brain imaging study explains why. When gently poked in the palm by researchers, Savage activated roughly the same brain region as normal test subjects. The area, called the sensory cortex, maintains a physical map of the body with different portions registering sensations in the face, arms and other body parts.
After losing a hand, the brain slowly cedes real estate in this region to the face, says Scott Frey, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Oregon in Eugene. But Savage's transplanted hand quickly commandeered this area back.
"The brain may be much more capable than we thought of at least getting back some organisation in these maps, even after being deprived after a very long time," Frey says.
His team tested Savage in a functional-MRI brain scanner four months after he became the third American to successfully receive a grafted hand.
When the researchers stroked a coarse sponge across his right palm, Savage's sensory cortex lit up in the same spot as four other men.
Prosthetic feedback
Frey's team isn't sure how Savage's brain managed to re-map the transplanted hand long after it had stopped receiving any signal from his original hand. One possibility is that Savage's brain never really lost the connection to his right hand, instead his brain merely dialled down the neurons that map it.Angela Sirigu, a neuroscientist at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Lyon, France says this reorganisation happens gradually.
Her team recently tested a hand transplant patient at two time points. "Just after the transplantation there was competition between the face representation and the hand," she says. "Three months later, this competition disappeared."
Understanding this process could help develop a next generation of prosthetic limbs, Frey says. Scientists are beginning to connect prostheses to nerves that control limb movement, and sending sensory information from the prosthetic to the brain would make replacement limbs even more useful.
Journal reference: Current Biology (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.08.051)
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Bionic hand wins top tech prize
| By Jonathan Fildes Science and technology reporter, BBC News |
The world's most advanced, commercially available, bionic hand has clinched the UK's top engineering prize.
The i-LIMB, a prosthetic device with five individually powered digits, beat three other finalists to win this year's MacRobert award.
The technology has been fitted to more than 200 people, including US soldiers who lost limbs during the war in Iraq.
The device started life in Scotland in 1963 as part of a project to help children affected by Thalidomide.
The complex device finally went on sale in July 2007. It is produced by a company called Touch Bionics based in Mid Calder, Livingston.
"It's such a fantastic invention," Ray Edwards, a quadruple amputee and one of the first people in the UK to be fitted with the device, told BBC News.
"When the arm was put on, I had tears rolling down my face. It was the first time in 21 years that I had seen a hand open.
"I can do a thumbs-up, I can hold a pen and I can do many things that I couldn't do before."
'World first'
The technology beat off three competitors to claim the Royal Academy of Engineering award at a ceremony in London.
The other finalists included a robotic system designed to care for millions of biological samples in sub-zero temperatures; a chemical sensor which could detect early stages of disease and a compact soot filter for diesel cars.
 |   Psychologically, it has been the greatest thing. Physically, it's hard to get things moving again.  Ray Edwards |
"Touch Bionics have fundamentally changed the benchmark for what constitutes an acceptable prosthesis," said Dr Geoff Robinson, chairman of the MacRobert Award Judging Panel.
"Having tried it myself, I can vouch for the fact that it really does work in the way portrayed, even if one is fortunate enough to still have one's own real hand alongside."
The i-LIMB hand has advanced a concept first outlined by NHS researchers.
"The hand has two main unique features," explained Stuart Mead, CEO of Touch Bionics.
"The first is that we put a motor into each finger, which means that each finger is independently driven and can articulate.
"The second is that the thumb is rotatable through 90 degrees, in the same way as our thumbs are.
"The hand is the first prosthetic hand that replicates both the form and the function of the human hand."
Other companies and organisations, such as the US space agency (Nasa) and the country's military research arm, Darpa, have developed more advanced hands.
"All of those are laboratory-based - ours is commercially available," said Mr Mead.
The hand does not require surgery to be fitted to the patient's stump, according to Mr Mead.
"There are two electrodes that sit on the skin that pick up myoelectric signals," he explained.
These impulses are created by the contraction of muscle fibres in the body.
"They are used by the computer in the back of the hand, which does two things: it interprets those signals and it controls the hand," he told BBC News.
The prosthetics have been fitted to more than 200 patients around the world, including Mr Edwards who is CEO of the Limbless Association.
"I'd love to get another one," he said.
"Psychologically, it has been the greatest thing. Physically, it's hard to get things moving again."
Mr Edwards likened wearing the hand to "carrying a brick".
However, he said, the benefits far outweighed any negatives. "I'm very fortunate," he said.
The firm is now looking to improve the design of the i-Limb as well as expanding its range of smart prosthetics.
"We are working a full-arm system - we have a prototype wrist, elbow and shoulder," said Mr Mead.
The i-LIMB will be on display at the Science Museum in London from 12 June.
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