Word: celle
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...recent years, the curative promises of embryonic stem cells and therapeutic cloning methods have outshone other research, but these techniques are still too new and unproven to yield safe and effective treatments for patients. Atala's strategy has been to use already existing cells to create more practical solutions - for replacing everything from diseased heart muscle to worn out cartilage and failing kidney cells. "Every cell in your body is programmed to do a job, and our job is to put these cells in the right environment in the lab so they know what to do," he says...
...most cases, that cell comes right from whatever organ is ailing, and, in the ultimate feat of personalized medicine, from the ailing organ of the patient himself. Furthest along in development are regenerated human bladders, which are already being tested in early human trials and which Atala has thoughtfully designed in small, medium and large sizes. Not far behind on the organ assembly line are heart valves and blood vessels. Atala began with the bladder not only because of his training as a pediatric urologist, but also because bladder cells are among the many that can be grown outside...
Creating a working organ hinges on keeping those first few cells alive, which has proven to be the biggest challenge for Atala's team. Each cell - whether from the bladder, skin, cartilage, or heart - prefers a different environment to grow, made up of unique cocktails of growth factors, enzymes, proteins and other nutrients. Once the incubated cells have multiplied to a sufficient number, Atala puts them through a series of rigorous tests to ensure that they look, act and function just like their normally grown siblings in the body...
Earlier this year, Atala's group became the first to make another valuable discovery: that amniotic fluid contains stem cells. These have proven critical in helping his team to regenerate tissues from the more ornery cells of the pancreas, liver and nerves, which don't grow as well in a lab dish. Amniotic-fluid stem cells aren't as versatile as embryonic stem cells, which can turn into every tissue type in the body, but they can still develop into an impressive number of much-needed cell types, and Atala has already used them to grow up muscle, bone...
...Another band of Chinese artists has pushed boundaries by depicting the lost souls trying to find their place in a rapidly developing society. Surrounded by the capitalist trappings that China's leaders hope will sate a politically repressed populace - chic clothes, cell phones, fast-food wrappers - these lonely figures wear blank or artificially cheery expressions. "As a child, my classmates and I sang revolutionary songs, and we had to write Mao's expressions over and over," says 43-year-old Zeng Fanzhi, whose portrait of a masked man with a cauterized visage sold for $1.63 million in London last month...