Login我们关于编程单元的系列的第二部分。
What if, as a baby, your intestines didn’t work? While normally a life-threatening condition, scientists hope that in the future, bioengineering could save you.
老鼠和男子：组织工程
Tissue engineering has already achieved wonders, but scientists in bioengineering and biotechnology have their sights set high. Bioengineering has helped wounded war veterans re-grow muscle tissue and burn victims receive skin grafts, but doctors, scientists and surgeons are working hard at regenerating more complex organs like hearts, lungs, and intestines using stem cells.
纽约时报最近介绍了Tracy Grikscheit博士，洛杉矶儿童医院的外科医生，组织工程领域的研究员。她从大鼠和小鼠中去除肠道组织，以查看在组织工程的帮助下是否可以在体内再生。她的目标是将来能够为人类做同样的事情。Grikscheit不仅要砍掉死肠，还努力迈向外科医生还可以与死组织一起切掉一些健康的肠子，将其放入一束干细胞中，然后将其植入体内，以使其植入体内，以使其健康-生长。
这将如何工作？当今的普遍做法是组织工程，肠细胞（在目前的研究中，来自小鼠）被切割，用酶处理以形成混合细胞（包括干细胞）的簇，并悬挂在可生物降解的塑料上，该塑料用作可作为一种脚手架以正确的方式使细胞定向。然后将工程替换换成不良器官。
But there is another side of the stem cell. If not controlled properly, it can keep growing without limits and increases the risk of forming into tumor. Stem cell development can be closely controlled in the laboratory, but when the cells are placed in the body it is a totally different situation. This is why a lot of research still needs to be done before stem cell therapy can be implemented in the clinic.
Grikscheit在将处理过的簇直接植入小鼠的消化道中取得了成功，它像肠道组织一样重新生长。这些细胞簇适应体内，并遵循命令分化为肠道组织。簇和身体之间有2条交流，这就是为什么它如此创新的原因。
Are stem cells the key to the future of medicine?
Stem cells are rightly named: they are like the stems from which leaves grow. They are versatile and pluripotent, meaning they can be programmed into becoming a specific kind of cell. Somewhat controversial because some stem cells are taken from human embryos, the study of stem cells has just had a breakthrough.
Shinya Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize last month for discovering that mature skin, intestinal and nerve cells in mice could be programmed into immature, pluripotent stem cells by introducing just a few genes. This means that patients with skin diseases, for example, could be reprogrammed and analyzed in a laboratory, possibly with the goal of developing medical therapies for them.
Thus,干细胞may be the key to the medical practices of the future. Labster, for one, are excited about how biotechnology and bioengineering are part of these innovations, and we want to get current life students excited about the possibilities, seeing as they will become the doctors and scientists of this exciting future.
