Research in histology

Agulan, LhianneCultura, ArmindaHermoso, KatherineVillaviray, Nestie Bryal C.

Ms. Jean MorfeProfessor in Histology

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Biomedical engineering, also called bioengineering is the application of engineering techniques to the understanding of biological systems and to the development of therapeutic technologies and devices.

Notable sub disciplines within biomedical engineering: Tissue engineering Genetic engineering Neural engineering Pharmaceutical engineering Medical devices

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Tissue engineeringOne of the goals of tissue engineering is to create artificial organs (via biological material) for patients that need organ transplants.

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More than 110,000 people in the United States are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant and more than 20 of them die each day. Those who do receive transplants face the risk of rejection, as the immune system attacks the foreign tissue, prompting the lifelong need for immunosuppressant drugs.

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• Transplantation also raises a number of bioethical concerns: how to define when a donor has died, who can give consent for organ donation, when and how consent can be given, the medical treatment of donors, and organ trafficking.

• Nowadays, when physicians run out of treatment options, they look to a nascent field known as bioengineering for solutions to their patients' ailments.

• They apply engineering principles to biological systems, opening up the possibility of creating new human tissue, organs, blood and even corneas. Waiting lists for organ transplants continue to be lengthy so the race to save lives with bioengineered body parts is on.

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"Biomedical engineering is presently undergoing explosive growth. The discipline has now developed an identity of its own, and is moving into areas such as tissue engineering and neuroscience that are far from the original engineering roots of the field. “Let’s discover how researchers are developing new techniques to replace diseased human organs using the patient’s own cells

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Note: Click the image on the next slide to lead you in a description.When you’re already in a description click again the same image to bring you back. There are 10 pictures; 5 are placed on slide 8 and the other 5 is on the slide 9.

Here’s a look at some of the most notable achievements in recent years.

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In 2011, the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology introduced a system that can rapidly manufacture two-layer artificial skin models. Their Tissue Factory has the capacity to make 5,000 skin sheets in a month.

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• A team at Princeton University, led by Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Michael McAlpine, used 3D printing technology to make a functional ear from calf cells and electronic materials. The ear that debuted in May 2013 is not a simple replacement — it can pick up radio frequencies well beyond the range that human ears normally detect.

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• Recently scientists have made advances in adding more biological material to artificial heart devices. In May the French company Carmat prepared to test an artificial device containing cow heart tissue. At Massachusetts General Hospital, surgeon Harald C. Ott and his team are working on a bioartificial heart scaffold while MIT researchers recently printed functional heart tissue from rodent cells.

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• Surgeon Anthony Atala directs the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and his team’s bioengineered bladders succeeded in clinical trials. The bladders were constructed from patients’ cells that were grown over two months on a biodegradable scaffold and then implanted. Patients included children with spina bifida who risked kidney failure. It’s been several years since then and the results are positive. “These constructs appear to be doing well as patients get older and grow,”

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• Being able to make blood vessels in the lab from a patient’s own cells could mean better treatments for cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and diabetes. In 2011, the head of California-based Cytograft Tissue Engineering reported progress in a study where three end-stage kidney disease patients were implanted with blood vessels bioengineered in the lab. After eight months the grafts continued to work well, easing access to dialysis. Then, this month, a team at Massachusetts General Hospital found a way to bring mature vascular cells back to an early, stem-like state. They generated long-lasting blood vessels in living mice.

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• In April, after an international team of surgeons spent nine hours operating on her at Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria, 32-month old Hannah Warren became the youngest patient to ever receive a bioengineered organ. Scientists had made a windpipe for her using her own bone marrow cells. Born without a trachea, she needed help breathing, eating, drinking and talking. Harvard Bioscience created the custom scaffold and bioreactor for the experimental procedure.

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When a ruptured or degenerating disc causes chronic back pain, treatment is limited. At worst, patients undergo surgery to fuse vertebrae together and then have limited flexibility. Over the past several years artificial discs have emerged as an alternative, but they can wear out as they work. In 2011, a research team from Cornell University bioengineered implants using gel and collagen seeded with rat cells that were then successfully placed into rat spines. This summer Duke bioengineers took things further, coming up with a gel mixture they think can help regenerate tissue when injected into the space between discs.

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• Bioengineers are working on it, but the liver is one of the largest, most challenging organs to recreate. In 2010 bioengineers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center grew miniature livers in the lab using decellularized animal livers for the structure and human cells. This month, a team from the Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine published results of a study where they reprogrammed human adult skin cells, added other cell types, and got them to grow into early-stage liver “buds.” Currently the scientists can produce about 100 of them

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• Little by little, bioengineered intestines are being grown in the lab to diagnose digestive disorders and to help patients born without a piece of intestine. In 2011, Cornell biological and environmental engineering assistant professor John March began collaborating with Pittsburgh-based pediatric surgeon David Hackam on a small artificial intestine using collagen and stem cells. Scientists at Harvard’s Wyss Institute also made a “gut-on-a chip” to mimic the real thing using intestinal cells in a tiny silicon polymer device.

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• One in 10 American adults will have some level of chronic kidney disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently around 600,000 patients in the U.S. have chronic kidney failure. Most rely on dialysis while a fraction of them actually get transplants. Scientists from the University of California, San Francisco are on a mission to create a sophisticated artificial kidney device made with human kidney cells, silicon nanofilters and powered by blood pressure. The project, led by UCSF nephrologist William Fissell and bioengineering professor Shuvo Roy, aims to begin testing the kidney device in 2017.

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• “Bioengineering Body Parts.” Teachers’ Domain. 31 Mar. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2012.

• http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/nsn11.sci.life.stru.bodyparts

• http://mashable.com/2013/07/23/bioengineered-body-parts/

• http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/credits/nsn11.sci.life.stru.bodyparts/