Progress in the tissue engineering of cell structures for use as research tools, and later as the basis for therapies: "Three-dimensional clusters of pancreatic beta-cells that live much longer and secrete more insulin than single cells grown in the laboratory are valuable new tools for studying pancreatic diseases such as diabetes and for testing novel therapies. This cutting-edge advance is described in [an open access paper] ... Finding a solution for the culturing and final transplantation of pancreatic cells will be an enormous breakthrough for the treatment of diabetes ... Growing pancreatic cells in the laboratory is challenging, in part because to survive and function normally they require cell-cell contact. [Researchers] developed an innovative method that uses photolithography to create microwell cell culture environments that support the formation of 3-D pancreatic beta-cell clusters and control the size of the cell aggregates. They describe the ability to remove these cell clusters from the microwells and encapsulate them in hydrogels for subsequent testing or implantation."

Link: http://www.sciencecodex.com/new_method_yields_insulinproducing_pancreatic_cell_clusters-89204

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm