Grow Me One of Those!
Today’s Bloggers’ Roundtable took us to the edge of science fiction, and perhaps a few steps beyond.
We had the opportunity to speak with COL Robert Vandre, Program Director, Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM). Col Dr. Vandre talked about the very, very cool things his agency is doing with regenerative medicine. Growing pieces parts for people.
two multi-institutional consortia, one led by Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C., and the University of Pittsburgh; and one led by Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., and the Cleveland Clinic. The U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, Texas, will work with these academic consortia to provide key guidance on military medical needs and conduct trials of new therapies.
Just what are all these learned people working on?
- Using a spray-on application of adult stem cells to speed wound healing and replacement of skin cells
- Using the goo around the cells of a pig’s bladder to regrow a fingertip that has been amputated
- Finding a drug that prevents burns from forming scars as they heal
- Using Chimerism to prevent potential organ rejection or the need for immuno-suppressant drugs
- Using dermal stem cells to loosen constricting scar tissue
They have a method to grow human skin that can produce an entire adult’s body cover in two weeks. Imagine how that will help burn victims. Grafts are a long and painful process. Extensive burns often prove fatal because the body cannot recover fast enough. It may soon be possible to grow a burn patient new skin, from a few of his own cells, and do a graft that covers the entire burn all at once.
They’re working on regrowing amputated limbs. As the medicine and the technology evolve, a new arm might be regrown in a year.
If you don’t want to wait, DARPA is working on implanting prosthetics into the bone and connecting the patient’s nerves up to electronics in the prosthetic. No more straps and a stump. The implanted device will work almost like the amputated limb.
To avoid that whole titanium look in your implanted limb, well… how about we cover it with human skin?
Yeah, we’re getting in to some deep medicine here. Much of this work involves adult stem cells, cells each and every one of us have in our bodies. There are treatments and processes now being used with adult stem cells that benefit people every day.
The research is also looking into the stems cells in placental and umbilical tissues. No babies are hamed to obtain these stem cells. They seem to have a greater ability to adapt than adult cells do but do not seem to have the serious issues that fetal stem cells have.
The doctor told us that fetal stem cells seem to create tumors since their “shut off” mechanism does not work or does not exist yet.
Here are PowerPoint slides [5 MB file] of some of the topics we talked about. Copyrights remain with the organizations credited, I presume.
Many of these topics and far more will be covered at the 26th Army Science Conference (ASC) in Orlando Florida. ASC takes place December 1-4, 2008.
Table of contents for 26th Army Science Conference
- Gee Whiz! The 26th Army Science Conference
- Grow Me One of Those!
- Webcast of Army Science Conference
