To achieve seamless cell-electronics interfacing, researchers have developed cyborg organs by growing human heart tissue together with dispersed, flexible electronics. Read Anqi Zhang’s article to learn more about cyborg organs! Continue reading “Cyborg” Human Organ Grown in a Dish
Over 17,000 Americans are currently waiting for liver transplants, with millions more living with chronic liver disease. There simply aren’t enough healthy organs to go around. So why not engineer them? Growing a liver “from scratch” by using its constituent cells could replace the need for whole organ transplants. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology generated hydrogels containing three different types of human cells, … Continue reading From Seed to Organ: Growing a Liver
Since food tasters have fallen out of fashion, scientists have had to devise new ways to check the safety of food and drugs that humans put in their mouths. In the pharmaceutical industry for example, animals like mice and dogs are often used to predict if a drug candidate will be harmful to people. If this seems strange to you, an unassuming Hershey bar should … Continue reading To Eat or Not to Eat? Miniature Livers Used in Safety Studies