A Future Alternative to Dentures, Regenerate Teeth Using Stem Cells
NEW YORK (May 24, 2010) - A technique pioneered in the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory of Dr. Jeremy Mao, the Edward V. Zegarelli Professor of Dental Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, can orchestrate stem cells to migrate to a three-dimensional scaffold infused with growth factor, holding the translational potential to yield an anatomically correct tooth in as soon as nine weeks once implanted.
People who have lost some or all of their adult teeth typically look to dentures, or, more recently, dental implants to improve a toothless appearance that can have a host of unsettling psycho-social ramifications. Despite being the preferred (but generally painful and potentially protracted) treatment for missing teeth nowadays, dental implants can fail and are unable to "remodel" with surrounding jaw bone that undergoes necessary changes throughout a person's life.
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"TO LIVE, TO ERR, TO FALL, TO TRIUMPH, TO RECREATE LIFE OUT OF LIFE"
In a post we made in early March of this year, we reported on an interview with Dr. J. Craig Venter. In the video Dr. Venter mentioned their team was close to producing cells from an entirely synthetic DNA genome.
Today the research team announced 'success' ... they have designed a genome in the computer, chemically made it in the lab, transplanted it into a recipient cell and now have produced a new self-replicating cell, controlled only by the synthetic genome.
It has taken the team the better part of 15 years to arrive at this important stage. Dr. Daniel Gibson, lead author on the published article, stated, “To produce a synthetic cell, our group had to learn how to sequence, synthesize, and transplant genomes. Many hurdles had to be overcome, but we are now able to combine all of these steps to produce synthetic cells in the laboratory.” He added, “We can now begin working on our ultimate objective of synthesizing a minimal cell containing only the genes necessary to sustain life in its simplest form. This will help us better understand how cells work.”
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Today the research team announced 'success' ... they have designed a genome in the computer, chemically made it in the lab, transplanted it into a recipient cell and now have produced a new self-replicating cell, controlled only by the synthetic genome.
It has taken the team the better part of 15 years to arrive at this important stage. Dr. Daniel Gibson, lead author on the published article, stated, “To produce a synthetic cell, our group had to learn how to sequence, synthesize, and transplant genomes. Many hurdles had to be overcome, but we are now able to combine all of these steps to produce synthetic cells in the laboratory.” He added, “We can now begin working on our ultimate objective of synthesizing a minimal cell containing only the genes necessary to sustain life in its simplest form. This will help us better understand how cells work.”
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Scientists Examine Gulf Spill, Estimate it Will Hit Florida in 6 Days
The European Space Agency and NASA have been diligently monitoring the gulf oil spill via satellite since it began. Today the ESA released new images with the statement that it has extended into current flow and will be carried towards Florida over the coming week.
From the European Space Agency Release on May 19th
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Caring for Partners with Dementia Increases the Risk of Suffering from Dementia
Husbands or wives who care for spouses with dementia are six times more likely to develop the memory-impairing condition than those whose spouses don’t have it, according to results of a 12-year study led by Johns Hopkins, Utah State University, and Duke University. The increased risk that the researchers saw among caregivers was on par with the power of a gene variant known to increase susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease, they report in the May Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
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New Vanderbuilt Study Monitors Circadian Rythyms in Cancer Cells
An interesting paper from May 10th, the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports on research from Vanderbilt University that used a "reporter molecule" and a custom camera equipped monitoring station for the monitoring of cell division division over a long period of time. What they discovered was the biological clock wasn't regulating cell division in their test cells. This implies that there is an opportunity to reactivate the biological clock in tumors with drug therapy, there by reducing growth rates.
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Mark Your Calendars for the American Chemical Societies 240th National Meeting
BOSTON, May 4, 2010 — What better venue than Boston — with its famed medical institutions — for a major scientific conference with the theme "Chemistry for Preventing & Combating Disease"?
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Graphene - the "nanomaterial of choice"
Nikhil Koratkar, a professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, believes graphene should be the nanomaterial of choice to strengthen composite materials used in such things as wind turbines and aircraft wings.
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Cirque Du Soleil Would Love This Robot
This video demonstration of a robot walking on a ball balancing up to 10 kg is from IEEE Spectrum Magazine. Developed by Masaaki Kumagai and Takaya Ochiai at the Robot Development Engineering Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems, Tohoku Gakuin University, Japan. '
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Scientists Discover Key Step for Regulating Embryonic Development
HOUSTON – Deleting a gene in mouse embryos caused cardiac defects and early death, leading researchers to identify a mechanism that turns developmental genes off and on as an embryo matures, a team led by a scientist at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported today in Molecular Cell.
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Gulf Coast Oil Spill Being Monitored Closely, From Space
The images below come from the European Space Agency, and the NASA Earth Observatory. In order to observe the clean-up efforts, the US Geological Survey, on behalf of the US Coast Guard, requested satellite maps of the area from the International Charter Space and Major Disasters.
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