Comments on: Patient, Heal Thyself http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/2012/10/patient-heal-thyself/ How human ingenuity is changing the way we live Mon, 20 May 2013 20:28:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: Brett Williams http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/2012/10/patient-heal-thyself/comment-page-1/#comment-1204 Brett Williams Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:36:02 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/?p=3993#comment-1204 I have read up on the pig's bladder matrix and it seems to have met with a lot of success. Fingers, from the first knuckle, that were lost regrown completely as before even a man who had his nose amputated had it regrown perfectly as before . It does not, however, build on scar tissue. This needs to be removed completely. What a great place to start though... I have read up on the pig’s bladder matrix and it seems to have met with a lot of success. Fingers, from the first knuckle, that were lost regrown completely as before even a man who had his nose amputated had it regrown perfectly as before
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It does not, however, build on scar tissue. This needs to be removed completely.

What a great place to start though…

]]> By: Ira S. Pastor http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/2012/10/patient-heal-thyself/comment-page-1/#comment-1191 Ira S. Pastor Sat, 06 Oct 2012 09:42:06 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/?p=3993#comment-1191 Interesting article. But there is one problem to keep in mind behind the hype. In nature (whether it be the starfish, or salamander, or flatworm, etc.), regeneration (and generation for that matter) is a bottom-up process, where you start with a small group of cells that grows, differentiates, interacts, and organizes based on a defined set of steps in the genetic blueprints AND continual changes to those blueprints following every sequential step (each step dictates the next in the process). Organ bio-printing, or growing stem cells on scaffolds, is trying to approach the problem from top-down perspective, which misses many of the intricacies of organogenesis (like size control, polarity, positional specification, etc. not to mention issues related to vascularization) You couldn't "build a baby" by mixing together a few trillion cells in a bowl... And while top down may work alright for simple tissues in sheets or tubes, it gets much more complex when dealing with the requirements for tissue stability and survival of critical organ systems that need to operate in 3 and technically 4 dimensional space. Ira S. Pastor CEO Bioquark Inc. Interesting article.

But there is one problem to keep in mind behind the hype.

In nature (whether it be the starfish, or salamander, or flatworm, etc.), regeneration (and generation for that matter) is a bottom-up process, where you start with a small group of cells that grows, differentiates, interacts, and organizes based on a defined set of steps in the genetic blueprints AND continual changes to those blueprints following every sequential step (each step dictates the next in the process).

Organ bio-printing, or growing stem cells on scaffolds, is trying to approach the problem from top-down perspective, which misses many of the intricacies of organogenesis (like size control, polarity, positional specification, etc. not to mention issues related to vascularization)

You couldn’t “build a baby” by mixing together a few trillion cells in a bowl…

And while top down may work alright for simple tissues in sheets or tubes, it gets much more complex when dealing with the requirements for tissue stability and survival of critical organ systems that need to operate in 3 and technically 4 dimensional space.

Ira S. Pastor
CEO
Bioquark Inc.

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