Genetically engineered hens lay drug-laced eggs, 3D micro organs provide a safe way to test new medications, and the Chinese finger trap inspires an expanding heart valve implant for children. Biology class was never this thrilling.
Three hens are now laying eggs on a daily basis that contain the drug. Image credit: Getty Images.
What is it? Japanese researchers have genetically engineered hens to lay eggs containing a disease-fighting protein called “interferon beta.”
Why does it matter? This protein is the basis for a high-priced drug that combats diseases including multiple sclerosis and hepatitis. If it can be harvested from eggs, the researchers hope the drug’s cost could be reduced to 10 percent of its current price.
How does it work? Researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Osaka “introduc[ed] genes that produce interferon beta into cells which are precursors of chicken sperm.” They fertilized eggs with these cells in order to create hens that inherited these genes. Three hens are now laying eggs on a daily basis that contain the drug, but it may be years before interferon beta derived from hens is on the market.
“This system has the potential for advanced drug screening and also to be used in personalized medicine — to help predict an individual patient’s response to treatment.” Image credit: Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Top image credit: Getty Images.
Body On A Chip
What is it? Scientists at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina created a series of 3D micro hearts, lungs and livers. This system, called “body-on-a-chip,” could one day grow into an accurate platform for testing how new pharmaceuticals affect human organs.
Why does it matter? Pharmaceutical companies spend $2 billion on drug development and face 90 percent failure rates. “There is an urgent need for improved systems to accurately predict the effects of drugs, chemicals and biological agents on the human body,” said Anthony Atala, a senior researcher on the project. “This system has the potential for advanced drug screening and also to be used in personalized medicine — to help predict an individual patient’s response to treatment.”
How does it work? The team used 3D printing and other techniques to build micro 3D organs out of “cell types found in native human tissue” and connected them to a monitored platform. This way, the researchers can measure not only a drug’s impact on a specific organ, but also note any effect on other organs within the system. It replicates the multi-organ response a true human body would experience if given a drug.
A decellularized loop of rat small bowel after repopulation, with stem-cell-derived human epithelial cells (green) lining the intestine and endothelial cells (red) lining the blood vessels. Image and caption credits: Kentaro Kitano, MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine.
Guts And Glory
What is it? A research team at Massachusetts General Hospital bioengineered “functional small intestine segments” that can deliver nutrients when implanted in a rat’s body.
Why does it matter? If replicable in humans, this breakthrough would help people who are on the waitlist for small bowel transplants, for which there is an extreme shortage of organs. These are people whose small intestine may have been removed after suffering from gastrointestinal diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, and who are often destined to a life of intravenous drugs and special diets.
How does it work? Lead researcher Harold Ott and his team first removed the living cells to create a “scaffold” for “stem-cell-derived human epithelial cells lining the intestine and endothelial cells lining the blood vessels.” The result is a graft that, when sutured to a rat’s carotid arteries and jugular veins, pumped nutrition into its bloodstream. “The next steps will be to further mature these grafts and to scale the construct to a human size,” Ott said, “so that someday we may be able to provide a more accessible alternative to small bowel transplantation for patients with short bowel syndrome — ideally growing ‘on-demand’ patient-specific grafts.”
A Surgical Implant That Can Grow
The implant design consists of two components: a degrading, biopolymer core and a braided, tubular sleeve that elongates over time in response to the tensile forces exerted by the surrounding growing tissue,” said Eric Feins, co-first author. Image credit: Getty Images.
What is it? Researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed an implant for pediatric heart surgery patients that can grow with the child.
Why does it matter? A single heart surgery is difficult enough for an adult, but when children need to have cardiac valves fixed, they often face additional surgeries over the years to adjust the implants as their bodies grows. “Medical implants and devices are rarely designed with children in mind, and as a result, they almost never accommodate growth,” said Pedro del Nido, co-senior author on the study. The device that del Nido’s team created not only will assist in cardiac repair, but it also has implications for other childhood implant surgeries.
How does it work? The design is based on the Chinese finger trap — an expanding mesh tube. “The implant design consists of two components: a degrading, biopolymer core and a braided, tubular sleeve that elongates over time in response to the tensile forces exerted by the surrounding growing tissue,” said Eric Feins, co-first author. “As the inner biopolymer degrades, the tubular sleeve becomes thinner and elongates in response to native tissue growth.”
In the lab, the scientists were able to eliminate 95 percent of the RNA clusters that cause ALS and Huntington’s disease as well as 95 percent of the myotonic dystrophy patient cells. Image credit: Getty Images.
What is it? Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine say they figured out a way to use the gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to edit RNA molecules and “correct molecular mistakes” that cause deadly diseases such as ALS and Huntington’s.
Why does it matter? “We are really excited about this work because we not only defined a new potential therapeutic mechanism for CRISPR-Cas9, we demonstrated how it could be used to treat an entire class of conditions for which there are no successful treatment options,” said David Nelles, co-first author of the study.
How does it work? Unlike DNA, RNA molecules are typically single-stranded. They transcribe genetic information encoded in DNA and carry it to parts of the cell that use it to make proteins. Building upon an earlier study in which they used the CRSPR-Cas9 gene editing technique to track RNA molecules in live cells, the researchers were able to zero in on the specific RNAs that contain disease-causing sequences. In the lab, the scientists were able to eliminate 95 percent of the RNA clusters that cause ALS and Huntington’s disease as well as 95 percent of the myotonic dystrophy patient cells. Still a long way off from patient testing, the researchers are taking initial steps to move their RCas9 testing into a clinic.