Spinning Spare Parts

Interesting posts from Kurzweil and MIT's Technology Review regarding cardiovascular tech using a patient's skin cells to do the deed, thus eliminating the rejection process inherent with anything foreign introduced into the body to, in this case, replace blood vessels compromised by disease, aging or traumatic injury. 

Basically, researchers grow human skin cells in a culture flask under conditions that encourage the cells to lay down a sheet of what is known as extracellular matrix — a structural material produced by animal cells that makes up our connective tissue.

Slicing the sheets into thin ribbons that can be spooled into threads makes it possible to use automated weaving and braiding machines to create three-dimensional structures that do not require fusing.

But that's not all.

The company is also working on a technique in which the cell-produced sheets are processed into particles instead of threads. The biological bits can then be molded together, says L'Heureux, giving tissue engineers two advantages. Molding the particles together leaves a complex network of channels behind—exactly what tissues engineers will need in order to produce, eventually, something like a liver, pancreas, or kidney. With most other technology, there is "no guarantee that the channels will be maintained," says L'Heureux. The particles could also be injected, he says, which could add volume to tissues for cosmetic or reconstructive purposes.

It seems some aspects of creativity mimic the 1st law of Thermodynamics whereby, like energy, an idea is transformed, not created or destroyed, in similar fashion to the 1st law. In this application, the invention of spinning wool or other material into threads to make clothing has been around for thousands of years, a process now being integrated into doing the same thing for health in creating woven blood vessels to save lives, something very cool if you ask me.