Gizmorama - August 14, 2017

Good Morning,

We have the technology...regenerative tissue technology. Well, researchers at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center do.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Scientists develop new regenerative tissue technology --*
Researchers at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center have developed a breakthrough technology to generate any cell type for treatment in the body.

The Tissue Nanotransfection, or TNT, can is capable of generating any cell type for treatment and can be used to repair injured tissue or restore function to aging tissue.

The study, published today in Nature Nanotechnology, was conducted on mice and pigs.

Researchers were able to reprogram skin cells to become vascular cells in severely injured legs that lacked blood flow. Active blood vessels appeared within one week and the legs were saved within two weeks.

"By using our novel nanochip technology, injured or compromised organs can be replaced. We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining," Dr. Chandan Sen, director of Ohio State's Center for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Based Therapies, said in a press release.

"This is difficult to imagine, but it is achievable, successfully working about 98 percent of the time. With this technology, we can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch. This process only takes less than a second and is non-invasive, and then you're off. The chip does not stay with you, and the reprogramming of the cell starts. Our technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance, so immune suppression is not necessary."

TNT is a nanotechnology-based chip designed to deliver cargo to adult cells in the body and the design of specific biological cargo for cell conversion. The cargo is delivered by a small electrical charge zapping the device.

It doesn't require laboratory-based procedures, is non-invasive and can me implemented at the point of care.

Clinical trials are expected to begin next year to test the technology in humans.



*-- New scanning technology yields 3D images of live insects --*
Scientists in Canada have developed a new method for imaging the insides of insects. The new scanning technology allowed researchers to develop extremely detailed 3D images of living insects.

Until now, researchers were only able to capture a snapshot of a dead insect, but the latest breakthrough allows for more detailed views without harming the insects.

The new imaging method will allow scientists to study dynamic physiological changes and processes. It is a vast improvement on standard insect imaging techniques.

"We essentially had snapshots, moments in time, when what we needed were dynamic images of insects' internal development," Joanna Konopka, a doctoral candidate at the University of Western Ontario, said in a news release. "We thought, what would happen if we tried to image them live?"

Researchers were able to suspend insects in a kind of living stasis by introducing them to low-oxygen, carbon dioxide-rich environments. Insects have a remarkable ability to survive without oxygen for hours, or even days.

The suspended animation offers scientists up to seven hours to subject insects to a variety of scanning technologies. Scientists were able to develop detailed internal images of Colorado potato beetles and true armyworms, two common agricultural pests.

Images developed using the new technique revealed details as small as 20 microns.

"I was absolutely awed," Konopka said. "I'm familiar with pictures and drawings in books but this gives us a wholly new perspective of what they are."

Researchers described their new scanning process in a paper published recently in the journal BioMed Central.

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