Saturday, September 17, 2011

BBC News - Artificial blood vessels created on a 3D printer


BBC News - Artificial blood vessels created on a 3D printer

Artificial blood vessels made on a 3D printer may soon be used for transplants of lab-created organs.

Until now, the stumbling block in tissue engineering has been supplying artificial tissue with nutrients that have to arrive via capillary vessels.

A team at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany has solved that problem using 3D printing and a technique called multiphoton polymerisation.

"We are establishing a basis for applying rapid prototyping to elastic and organic biomaterials," said Dr Tovar.

"The vascular systems illustrate very dramatically what opportunities this technology has to offer, but that's definitely not the only thing possible."

Friday, September 09, 2011

Lung cancer vaccine discovered in Cuba? | Ubergizmo

Lung cancer vaccine discovered in Cuba? | Ubergizmo: Do you think it is rather ironic that a country like Cuba who produces some of the best cigars around, have managed to stumble upon a therapeuitc vaccine against lung cancer, touted to be the world’s first? Yes, I too, find it rather hard to believe, but with lung cancer being quite the astute killer (5-year survival rate for late-stage lung cancer can be less than 1%), perhaps this dose of good news is what the world needs considering what you read in the papers and watch on TV, seeing wave after wave of depressing news.

The vaccine is known as CimaVax-EGF, where it will target both stage 3 and stage 4 lung cancer patients who have failed to exhibit any kind of positive response to other treatment methods including chemotherapy and radiotherapy. While the vaccine will not offer a cure, it is said to minimize the cancer’s growth as it possesses antibodies which are able to combat the proteins that allow uncontrolled cell growth.

Turning cancer into a “manageable, chronic disease by generating antibodies against the proteins which triggered the uncontrolled cell proliferation,” according to Gisela Gonzalez at the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM) in Havana, this discovery might just help those who are flirting with death at the moment.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

BBC News - Soil bacterium helps kill cancers


BBC News - Soil bacterium helps kill cancers

A bacterium found in soil is a showing promise as a way of delivering cancer drugs into tumours.

UK and Dutch scientists have been able to genetically engineer an enzyme into the bacteria to activate a cancer drug.

Researchers have been investigating the possibilities of clostridium "vectors" to deliver cancer drugs for decades.

The scientists from the University of Nottingham and Maastricht University were able to genetically engineer an improved version of an enzyme into C.sporogenes.
(Professor Nigel Minton University of Nottingham).