San Diego-based Organovo is engineering human tissue using a 3-D ‘bioprinter’. The process involves printing cells onto a gel matrix that holds the cells in position for 24 hours until the cells fuse together. The company is currently creating blood vessels and hopes to move into clinical trials in 3 to 4 years.
WATCH: Regenerative Medicine: A Growing Market
UC Irvine scientists used human embryonic cells to create retinal cells, pictured above. These retinal cells developed into retinal tissue, the first 3D tissue to be created from stem cells. This research is an early stage in creating retinas to treat eye disorders.
WATCH: Regenerative Medicine: A Growing Market
Photo Source: UCIrvine
Scientists use an inkjet printer to print tissues in a 3D shape to apply to burn wounds. Each cell type is placed in a vial, as shown above, and is “printed” through an ink jet printer head.
WATCH: Regenerative Medicine: A Growing Market
Photo Source: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Scientists use a laser to scan the wound and then upload the image to PowerPoint. The image (shown above) tells the scientists what cells need to be replicated by the inkjet printer and where these cells will be placed.
WATCH: Regenerative Medicine: A Growing Market
Photo Source: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Scientists at the McGowan Institute were rewarded a $12 million contract from the Department of Defense to discover how to rebuild bones and muscles for injured soldiers. The scientists have created injectable calcium phosphate cement, which can be used to create bones (as shown above). They are also working on creating a naturally made scaffold for cells to replace muscle tissue, which they hope will be able to regenerate muscle.
WATCH: Regenerative Medicine: A Growing Market
Photo Source: McGowan Institute
At the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Mao, have found a potential substitute for dental implants. As shown above, scientists created a natural tooth scaffold out of stem cells, which were integrated into the surrounding tissue in an animal model. Scientists hope natural tooth scaffolds will be a more natural process with a faster recovery time than dental implants.
WATCH: Regenerative Medicine: A Growing Market
Photo Source: Medical Center
Scientists at the Yale University School of Medicine discovered stem cells removed from female’s uterus lining, or endometrial stem cells, can be transplanted into the brain of a mouse with Parkinson’s disease and will restore damaged brain cells. While an individual with Parkinson’s disease lacks dopamine in the brain, which controls motor movement, endometrial stem cells increased the dopamine level in mice’s brains. Neurons created by human endometrial stem cells, as pictured above, represent a potential cure for Parkinson’s disease.
WATCH: Regenerative Medicine: A Growing Market
Photo Source: Dr. Hugh S. Taylor, Yale University
At the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, scientists transformed mouse exocrine cells, which compose the pancreas, into insulin-producing cells. The image above represents a mouse’s pancreas. The red areas are those rich with insulin. Diabetes patients lack insulin-producing cells. Scientists hope this discovery will lead to a treatment for diabetes.
WATCH: Regenerative Medicine: A Growing Market
Photo Source: Joe Zhou, Melton Lab, Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Scientists at the RIKEN Research Center in Japan discovered that iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells), which can differentiate into any type of cell, can be transformed in to natural-killer T cells (NKT cells) that suppress tumor growth. This experiment successfully suppressed tumor growth in a mouse model, and with more experimentation could potentially become an alternative cancer therapy for humans.
WATCH: Regenerative Medicine: A Growing Market
Photo Source: RIKEN Research Center for Allergy and Immunology