If you’ve been reading my blog for more than a few months, then you know that I am a strong proponent for the use of stem cells to improve our health.
Continue reading Caveat Emptor?
I bet you thought I gave up on 3D printing. I mean, the last time I published a blog discussing this intriguing technology was more than 14 months ago! Never fear- it was only because most of what is going was not for public consumpiton (or repeating what had already been done).
Continue reading Print me an ear????
I can’t believe I haven’t written about 3D printing in such a long time. Maybe because I was so disappointed at that “travelling 3D expo” in Baltimore. I thought it relegated the entire process to be a novelty, a toy kids would get for Christmas and never use again.
Continue reading 3D Bioprinting
Well, here’s another chapter in the sci v. scifi book. I wrote about Organovo and its artificial liver – not to replace a human’s organ, but to test various therapies and drugs. Now, here’s another researcher’s take on that issue.
Continue reading A ‘chip’ off the old block?
Don’t you just love science fiction? Because the best science fiction involves conjecture of the world as it could be. I remember being mesmerized by Tom Swift, Jr., as a young boy. Other than the delusion perpetrated that Victor Appleton II wrote the series (instead of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams), they were wonderful books. (I only read the first 16; then I graduated to Robert Heinlein.)
Continue reading SciFi or just Sci?
I’ve written about 3D printing for medical applications. And, we are making progress. But, the biggest issue precluding their become a reality to produce viable organs is the need to provide blood and nutrients- i.e., perfusion. That’s why folks have developed scaffolding systems (for information on scaffolding, click here) to develop the network of blood vessels necessary. Once that threshold is crossed, organs like the bioartificial kidney would be possible (as described here). The issue is generally that constructing these hollow channels into blood vessels tend to leak or rupture at the structural seams.
Continue reading One small step. One critical step.
Continue reading Artificial Organs Progress- Tissue engineered, scaffolding based insertions
