Finally Chris over at Ouroboros came up with the idea and the quick implementation of Hourglass, a blog carnival devoted to the biology of aging/biogerontology. For some reason I am not an explicit supporter of blog carnivals – many of my posts were chosen by carnival editors but I never hosted one -, but Hourglass will be the big exception in which I participate, submit posts and host it later. The reason: first it presents aging/biogerontology related posts, which fits my profile and second it was instigated by Chris Patil, whose work is a guarantee for keeping all this in the good direction. So if you want to read on the evolution of longevity and aging, calorie restricition, stem cells/tissue engineering/regenerative medicine, or on the association of long life and intelligence at once, Hourglass is for you.
Archive for July 8th, 2008
Hourglass, a blog carnival devoted to the biology of aging
Posted by attilachordash on July 8, 2008
Posted in Chris Patil, aging, biology, blog, blogxperiment, life extension, longevity, partial immortalization, regenerative medicine, science, stem cells, tissue engineering | 2 Comments »
The decellularized matrix hack: skipping many steps in tissue engineering
Posted by attilachordash on July 8, 2008
The concept of decellularizing complex organs in cadavers and reseeding the remaining matrix structure with differentiated, stem or progenitor cells, growing in a bioreactor and transplanting back to the organism could turn out to be a real technological shortcut in the field of tissue engineering. It is not a brand new story on the web, but it is quite new in science and when I heard Doris Taylor at the Understanding Aging Conference talking on that….well I was really amazed.
Dr. Taylor not only showed the pictures of a complete decellularized rat heart matrix, but in fact they did it on a whole rat framework. So the obvious question is whether the technique could be extended to complete human cadavers (imagine the bone and the bone marrow situation) and if yes, when and how? I am sure if there were a useful clinical near term application of this type of tissue engineering, people would include that option too into their testaments.
And now a pop video on the topic and the abstract:
Perfusion-decellularized matrix: using nature’s platform to engineer a bioartificial heart Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in USA, biology, biotechnology, medicine, regenerative medicine, science, stem cells, technology, tissue engineering | 3 Comments »
