Posted by Mike on January 28th, 2008 in biology

I find it hard to hate MIT, in spite of the fact that the eggheads in the Northeast seem to think that the rest of the country -other than California- is a vast intellectual and scientific wasteland. Here is another example of why MIT is the finest scientific institute in the US, maybe the world.

The notion of growing body parts is in full bloom, finally. Looking at my other blog articles on printing organs, growing bladders, looking for blood substitutes (blood is another organ, like skin, in my definition), one now finds that the MIT folks are coaxing EPC’s -Epithelial Progenitor Cell- into lining up along the grooves in the substrate.

As the graduate researcher says “The cells can sense (the patterns), and they end up elongated in the direction of those grooves”. Add a gel to enable the cells to grow in 3D and pretty soon you have capillaries. Note the quote-”The cells can sense….” The notion of the cells “sensing” a pattern is almost metaphysical, but please consider how the cells “know”.

I remember watching a cardio bypass operation years ago, from the head of the patient, and as the cardioplegic (heart stopping) solution started to wear off, the heart started to quiver, then try to beat rhythmically, finally roared back to full function with no intervention. The heart screamed for existence, life persists. Don’t tell me that cells can’t sense a pattern.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/miot-mwt121707.php