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Better living, thanks to the laboratory

The latest advances include the creation of replacement bladders, an at-home cholesterol test and a saliva-based oral cancer test.

By ROBERT N. JENKINS
Published December 12, 2006

One of the joys of living now is the steady advance of science in a remarkable number of fields. Here's a brief look at some of the technological achievements recently made public.

. Scientists in the United Kingdom have spun fine threads of a type of silicone that contains living human brain cells. The cells remained alive and capable of growth afterward, according to the lead researchers.

"This will enable significant advances . . . ranging from tissue engineering to regenerative medicine," researchers Suwan N. Jayasinghe and Andrea Townsend-Nicholson said last month.

"The ability to 'electrospin' biologically active threads and scaffolds of living organisms will be tremendously useful for . . . novel bioengineering and medical applications."

They reported their findings in the Nov. 13 issue of the American Chemical Society's journal, Biomacromolecules.

Electrospinning is a process that uses an electric field to draw fibers out of a thick chemical compound called a polymer. In this new project, the scientists caused a concentrated suspension of living cells to flow through a tiny needle within a thicker needle. A chemical chain of a silicone substance simultaneously flowed from that outer needle, forming a fiber around the living cells.

Still to be studied, the researchers acknowledged, is how this process affects the biological properties of the living cells over the longer term.

The current issue of Popular Science magazine has the editors' selection of the 100 most promising products and technologies. Categories for these "Best of What's New" awards range from automotive technology to home entertainment, from aviation and space to general innovation.

Among those advances honored in the field of health, and the staff's comments, are:

. Creating a human bladder in the lab. "This breakthrough is the first complex human organ that has been successfully grown and transplanted."

Seven patients received transplanted bladders grown from their own cells by tissue engineers at Wake Forest University and, four years later, had not suffered the typical rejection problems.

. Ultrasound on your laptop. "This system delivers all the capabilities of a standard ultrasound probe but without the six-figure price tag . . . Doctors simply download the software to their exam room's computer, plug in the hand-held unit's cable" and scan the patient.

. An at-home cholesterol test. "The handheld, battery-powered CardioChek can run five tests right from your bathroom in just two minutes, including HDL (good) cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose."

. A saliva-based oral cancer test. "Long before telltale lesions appear, UCLA's new, reliable spit test detects oral cancer by scanning a sample for certain red-flag RNA molecules. The test is 85 percent accurate, and results come back in 24 hours."

. Call-in heart attack help. The Heartwatch Remote Cardiac Care Service monitor "can diagnose heart problems in five minutes: Twelve leads attach to your chest to record 45 seconds of heart-beats, which you play back into your phone. Software turns the bleeps into a full cardiograph reading so HeartWatch doctors can tell if you're having a heart attack."

Robert N. Jenkins can be reached at (727) 893-8496 or bjenkins@ sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 11, 2006, 18:58:45]