Sweet, Soft Matter: Candy Cotton for the Regeneration of Blood Vessels

I love interdisciplinary journals, but I had not stumbled across Soft Matter, where physics meets chemistry meets biology for fundamental soft matter research, until today when the following story caught my eye:

(Via Red Orbit)

"Scientists are turning to cotton candy as a novel tool to help grow replacement tissues for people. It seems the long-time favorite treat may provide an ideal way to generate a network of blood vessels within lab-grown skin, bone, muscle or fat for breast reconstruction, researchers say.

Dr. Jason Spector of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York and Leon Bellan of Cornell University conducted the research on the new technique.

It works by first pouring a thick liquid chemical over the cotton candy, and waiting for the liquid to solidify into a chunk. The chunk is then put in to warm water to dissolve the cotton candy, leaving small channels where the strands of cotton candy used to be. Eventually, what is left is a piece of material containing a network of fine channels.

These channels are then lined with cells to create artificial blood vessels. The solid chunk can be seeded with immature cells of the type of tissue scientists wish to make.

Since the block is biodegradable, as it disappears it is slowly replaced by growing tissue. Ultimately what remains is a piece of tissue permeated with tiny blood vessels."

Assuming this technique will be refined, it would have incredible implications for organ transplantation, regenerative medicine, artificial wombs, as well as other medical uses.

What can I can say but "Sweet!"?

Noteworthy News Briefs

While our bloggers have been churning away blog posts, the news stream just keeps throwing more information our way, giving plenty of food for thought -- here are a just a few summaries and links to noteworthy stories of ethical, legal, and/or societal import:

~ Empowerment enhances cognition (or the flip side, why kicking someone when they are down keeps them down). From the Economist, a study shows that simply putting someone into a weak social position impairs his/her cognitive function. Conversely, “empowering” him or her, sharpens up his mind. Full story here.

~ Most study participants understand research goals. From Reuters: People who take part in clinical trials often do so out of a desire to advance scientific knowledge and to help others, a new international study demonstrates. Access full article here.

~ Some doctors are worried that the early findings regarding a drug that seems to restore speech in Alzheimers' patients will raise premature hopes in patients and their families. More on the story here.

~ Hello, Mr. Roboto -- Do we think that machines can think? From Science Daily, the question of why and under what circumstances we attribute human-like properties to machines and how such processes manifest on a cortical level was investigated. Article accessible here.

~ Creationism rears its ugly head. Again.

~ A Blow to Genetic/Biological Idolatry: Families with Children Without A Genetic Or Gestational Link To Their Parents Do Well. Story here.

~ Good News: We've Seen the Future and We May Not Be Doomed. The story on the UN Report of the Future, here and a link to the Executive Summary here.

~ The American Medical Association, long considered to be the voice of American doctors., formally apologized for more than a century of policies that excluded blacks from the group. Article here.

~ In the category of 'keepin' em barefoot and pregnant': The draft proposal from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would withhold government funds from health-care providers and organizations that don't hire people who refuse to perform abortions or provide certain types of birth control. Story here. Worthy commentary here.

~ The Future of Babies: Artificial Wombs and Pregnant Grandmas. From LiveScience, artificial wombs and experiments on human embryos grown in the lab will be commonplace and no big deal ethically in 30 years, several scientists predict.