Printers aid stem cell research
Printers - 11/12/2006 16:54:07
Ink jet printers are aiding stem cell research by helping to create a system that could eventually allow scientists to develop complex tissues from stem cells.
Bioengineers at Carnegie Mellon University and stem cell biologists at the University of Pittsburgh have come up with a unique way of organising stem cells so that they develop into a pattern like that of cells seen in real tissues.
Using ink jet printer technology, but loading the printers with protein instead of ink, the team were able to squirt small amounts of proteins down in a specific pattern, on top of which stem cells are then placed to grow.
"It is like laying ink on paper," lead researcher Jadlowiec Phillippi told Reuters. "It's a blueprint for cells to live and grow and differentiate with. Depending on which pattern they are on top of, they become one lineage or another."
Lee Weiss, research professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, said the ink-jet technology used in the experiment is no more complicated than that found in a normal printer.
The researchers tested their technique using mouse stem cells, but they warned that it would be some time before it could be used on real human cells.
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