Posted on 11/27/2006 1:07:05 AM PST by LibWhacker
In a feat once as unlikely as the miller's daughter of fairytale fame spinning straw into gold, scientists in the United Kingdom have spun fine threads of biocompatible silicone that contain living human brain cells. The cells remained alive and capable of growth afterward, they say.
"This has far-reaching implications and will enable significant advances to be made in technologies ranging from tissue engineering to regenerative medicine," Suwan N. Jayasinghe and Andrea Townsend-Nicholson state in their report.
It appeared Nov. 13 in ACS' Biomacromolecules, a bimonthly journal. "The ability to electrospin biologically active threads and scaffolds of living organisms will be tremendously useful for the development of a whole host of novel bioengineering and medical applications."
Electrospinning is a well-established process for drawing fibers out of a thick polymer by use of an electric field. The scientists used an electrospinning approach in which a concentrated suspension of living cells flowed through a tiny inner needle while thick poly(dimethylsiloxane) flowed from an outer needle. The silicone material formed a fiber around the cells. One of the many topics awaiting study, the researchers said, is how the process affects the biological properties of the cells in the long term.
Hi bitt, have not talked with you since Thanksgiving!!
I do not like things scientists are doing. My son is a BioChemist and I pray he never gets into what I consider 'bad stuff'!
I'm not at all convinced that these 'living brain cells' are that smart. Maybe they were the ones in the "ABE" (abnormal) jar in Young Frankenstein? Otherwise, wouldn't they have evolved a defense mechanism against scientists seeking to enslave them in these strands and prevent them from self-actualizing?
/sarcasm. I think....
Biomacromolecules Read it cover to cover every month. Of course do I have to mention the centerfolds?
sounds like a Happy Gilmore excuse to go playing around with the actual brain. Yikes, imagine that divot.
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devolve, you know I like Mulder! I like his spooky stuff!
I know -
That should fill up your screen!
It DID!! And ran over onto the floor, etc, etc, lol!!
Looked great - if I didn't feel like a moonbat, heh.
100%x750
That should do it!
I don't know enough about this to call bullshit, but something doesn't seem right. I'd like to know:
Thanks for the ping!
So THAT's where I left them. Doggone it.
Several years ago, I read about the Chinese doing experiments with human brain cells and silicone. They were supposedly keeping brain cells alive in a silicone solution. Today, ethics is irrelevent to science. Someone will do it.
Hey, that looks like MY BRAIN, YOU'VE GOT MY BRAIN!
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