Growing Human-Animal Hybrids for Organs to Become Legal in Japan

Japanese government is about to give green light to scientists who look forward to growing human organs in animal bodies.
A team of researchers led by Hiromitsu Nakauchi of the University of Tokyo, managed to come up with a process for creating a "chimeric embryo" by introducing a human stem cell inside the body of an animal embryo (which in such cases is usually a pig).
This process will allow scientists to grow human-animal hybrid that can be used to grow human organs.
Scientists want to introduce the embryo in a female pig's womb. This will induce pregnancy and lead to the creation of a pig "equipped" human organs (for example, a pancreas or liver).
Inside the body of the pig organs would mature as it develops. After it is slaughtered scientists will harvest the chimera's organs and then transplant them.
Currently the creation of a chimeric embryo is considered legal, but implanting the embryo in an animal's womb is not. At the moment a Japanese regulatory body is analyzing all pros and cons to decide whether to permit planting chimeric embryos in animals or not.
Scientists believe that very soon such procedure will be legal.
(Via Physorg) Powered by www.scifidiscovery.blogspot.com

Monkey Mind Control Could Lead to Treatment for Paralyzed Patients

It's an unusual path, but promising therapy for paralyzed patients may come from the work of monkeys.

Researchers at Duke University conducted a study in which monkeys learned to control the movement of virtual arms by using just their brains. These findings could prove particularly useful for people who have sensory and motor deficiencies caused by spinal cord injuries or for those who are severely paralyzed.

"Bimanual movements in our daily activities – from typing on a keyboard to opening a can – are critically important," said Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neurobiology at the Duke University School of Medicine and senior author of the study, in a statement. "Future brain-machine interfaces aimed at restoring mobility in humans will have to incorporate multiple limbs to greatly benefit severely paralyzed patients."

Brain-machine interfaces are systems that connect different regions of the brain to assistive devices that help restore patients' motor and sensory functions, the study said. Previous studies have developed brain-machine interfaces that control single prosthetic arms, but have not successfully used two at the same time.

According to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation's Paralysis Resource Center, nearly 2 percent of the United States population, or about 5.6 million people, report currently living with some form of paralysis and 0.4 percent of the population, or about 1.3 million people, say they are paralyzed from a spinal cord injury.

People can become paralyzed from a number of different sources, including cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, a traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord injury or stroke, which is the leading cause of paralysis, according to the Reeve Foundation.

Nicholelis' research is significant because the monkeys in the study successfully controlled two virtual arms at once and their performance improved over time.

Via www.usnews.com

Bioengineered Body Parts: A move towards the creation of synthetic being...

It will be surprising that in the nearest future human could be a complete synthetic materials. On June 6th, a group of doctors at Duke University successfully implanted the first bioengineered blood vessel into a live patient. Though bioengineering has been advancing rapidly, this procedure was the first successful implant of any synthetically bioengineered body part.Implanted into a patient suffering from the end stages of kidney disease, the vein had been synthesized from donated human cells that were then developed on a scaffold. In order to prevent any antibodies in the patient from attacking the foreign vessel, the qualities that could trigger the attack were removed. The vein has proved more successful in tests than synthetic or animal-based implants because they are not prone to clotting and don’t pose risk of infection during the surgery.Incredibly, the veins are made of the same flexible materials that they’re connected to and even take on the properties of their cellular environment and other veins. With the success of this procedure, this emerging field has huge implications for further uses in the medical world. Soon, doctors hope to be bioengineering veins for heart disease and maybe even go on to bioengineer whole organs or body parts.