- Lab-Grown Mini Organs Could Speed Up Drug Discovery (forbes.com)
The thought of lab-grown organs conjures up Frankenstein-like imagery. The reality however, is somewhat less visually dramatic, with the term ‘organoids’ used to describe tiny 3D structures of human tissue, a millimeter or so in diameter...these tiny lumps of cells are creating a lot of excitement in the world of medical research...Cells in dishes and animal models have been used for preclinical testing of drugs for decades. Success in these experiments is a key hurdle for any new medicine to overcome before being given the green light for all-important human clinical trials...Organoids are most commonly made either from a small sample of tissue needled out of a person or from stem cells cultured in a cocktail of nutrients intent on pushing them towards becoming a particular tissue type. So far, organoids have been made resembling several tissues including lung, liver, brain, kidney and intestine...as a relatively new innovation they are being used to investigate dozens of conditions from infectious diseases to cancer.... A study published last year in Science Translational Medicine by scientists at the University Medical Centre, Utrecht generated organoids formed from the rectal tissue of 71 people with cystic fibrosis and exposed them to experimental drugs. By observing changes in the organoids, the scientists accurately predicted which patients would respond to the therapies in just one week at a cost of around $1200 per patient. The results were so convincing that a positive organoid test is now considered sufficient evidence for insurance companies to fund the new therapies in the Netherlands...
- NHS to give volunteers ‘synthetic blood’ made in a laboratory within two years (independent.co.uk)
….clinical trial of artificial red blood cells will occur before 2017, National Health Service (UK) scientists said. The blood is made from stem cells extracted from either the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies or the blood of adult donors.
- Precision medicine brought one step closer to the clinic (sciencedaily.com)
A revolutionary, high-throughput, robotic platform has been designed that automates and standardizes the process of transforming patient samples into stem cells. This unique platform for the first time gives researchers the scale to look at diverse populations to better understand the underlying causes of disease and create new individually tailored treatments, enabling precision medicine in patient care.
- Fetal tissue research declining, still important (newsdaily.com)
political battle over the use of fetal tissue in medical research has been reinvigorated by the release of undercover videos….interest in the use of fetal tissue is dwindling,…Newer, less-controversial technologies, including the "reprogramming" of adult skin cells to create specific types of stem cells, have rendered fetal tissue less central…