Messenger RNA: A game-changing advance in regenerative medicine
A new way to reprogram ordinary human cells into stem cells, using RNAs, appears safer and much more efficient than current methods — and can much more readily transform stem cells into specialized cells to treat disease. We now know that scientists can take one of your cells, perhaps a skin cell, and transform it into ... Read More about Messenger RNA: A game-changing advance in regenerative medicine
A new target in polycystic kidney disease
In polycystic kidney disease, fluid-filled cysts gradually take over the kidneys, forcing patients to go on chronic dialysis — or wait for a kidney transplant. Hopes for a cure were raised when animal models showed promise in drugs inhibiting mTOR, a protein that coordinates cell growth and is over-active in PKD. But recent clinical trials ... Read More about A new target in polycystic kidney disease
Drug-testing alternative: a lung on a chip
Combining microfabrication techniques from the computer industry with modern tissue engineering, a team at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering has created a device that mimics the function of a human lung. This living “lung-on-a-chip,” which incorporates human lung and blood-vessel cells, reproduces the all-important interface between the lung’s tiny ... Read More about Drug-testing alternative: a lung on a chip