Lifeboat Foundation

To successfully engineer cell or tissue implants, bioengineers must facilitate their metabolic requirements through vascular regeneration. However, it is challenging to develop a broad strategy for stable and functional vascularization. In a recent report on Nature Communications, Wei Song and colleagues in the interdisciplinary departments of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Medicine, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Clinical Sciences and Bioengineering in the U.S. described highly organized, biomimetic and resilient microvascular meshes. The team engineered them using controllable, anchored self-assembly methods to form microvascular meshes that are almost defect-free and transferrable to diverse substrates, for transplantation.

The scientists promoted the formation of functional blood vessels with a density as high as ~200 vessels per mm^-2 within the subcutaneous space of SCID-Beige mice. They demonstrated the possibility of engineering microvascular meshes using human induced pluripotent stem-cell (iPSCs) derived endothelial cells (ECs). The technique opens a way to engineer patient-specific type 1 diabetes treatment by combining microvascular meshes for subcutaneous transplantation of rat islets in SCID-beige mice to achieve correction of chemically induced diabetes for 3 months.

Vasculature is an essential component of any organ or tissue, and vascular regeneration is critical to successfully bioengineer implants. For instance, during cell replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes (T1D), transplanted insulin producing cells rely on the vasculature to function and survive. Bioengineers often use vascular endothelial cells such as human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to spontaneously assemble into tubular structures within the extracellular matrix (ECM). But the resulting structures can be random, uncontrollable and less efficient for microvascular regeneration. Scientists have recently developed three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques to engineer controlled cellular constructs with embedded vessels. However, it remains challenging to 3D print resilient and transferrable, high-resolution, microvasculature.

Caterpillar has been synonymous with big, heavy equipment — for farming, construction and mining — since Holt Manufacturing and C. L. Best Tractor merged in 1925 to form the Peoria, Illinois-based company. Over the years, tons of innovation have been built into the iconic yellow products, too, from the Model 20 Track-Type Tractor introduced in 1927 to the ginormous engines that helped power the Apollo 11 mission to the moon 50 years ago.

Coincidentally, one of Cat’s latest breakthroughs is self-driving, or autonomous, and remote-controlled mining equipment, which could very well find itself on the moon when NASA is scheduled to return to the lunar surface in 2024, with plans to build a permanent base near the orb’s south pole, part of the Artemis program.

Just as on terrestrial sites, Caterpillar fully or semi-autonomous bulldozers, graders, loaders and dump trucks could be utilized to build roads, housing and other infrastructure. Operator-less drilling and digging machines might mine water, oxygen-rich rocks and moon dust for use in 3D printing of various materials.

Inside the strange world of 3D printing Martian homes.

3D printers are revolutionizing manufacturing by allowing users to create any physical shape they can imagine on-demand. However, most commercial printers are only able to build objects from a single material at a time and inkjet printers that are capable of multimaterial printing are constrained by the physics of droplet formation. Extrusion-based 3D printing allows a broad palette of materials to be printed, but the process is extremely slow. For example, it would take roughly 10 days to build a 3D object roughly one liter in volume at the resolution of a human hair and print speed of 10 cm/s using a single-nozzle, single-material printhead. To build the same object in less than 1 day, one would need to implement a printhead with 16 nozzles printing simultaneously!

Now, a new technique called multimaterial multinozzle 3D (MM3D) printing developed at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) uses high-speed pressure valves to achieve rapid, continuous, and seamless switching between up to eight different printing materials, enabling the creation of complex shapes in a fraction of the time currently required using printheads that range from a single nozzle to large multinozzle arrays. These 3D printheads themselves are manufactured using 3D printing, enabling their rapid customization and facilitating adoption by others in the fabrication community. Each nozzle is capable of switching materials at up to 50 times per second, which is faster than the eye can see, or about as fast as a hummingbird beats its wings. The research is reported in Nature.

“When printing an object using a conventional extrusion-based 3D printer, the time required to print it scales cubically with the length of the object, because the printing nozzle has to move in three dimensions rather than just one,” said co-first author Mark Skylar-Scott, Ph.D., a Research Associate at the Wyss Institute. “MM3D’s combination of multinozzle arrays with the ability to switch between multiple inks rapidly effectively eliminates the time lost to switching printheads and helps get the scaling law down from cubic to linear, so you can print multimaterial, periodic 3D objects much more quickly.”

TABLE OF CONTENTS —————
0:00–17:57 : Introduction (Meaning of Life)
17:58–37:45 CHAPTER 1: Longevism and Life Extension
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WHY DOES AGING HAPPEN?
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37:46–54:39 CHAPTER 2 : Gerontonology and Aging a. Free Radical Theory of Aging b. Waste Accumulation Theory of Aging c. Stem Cell Theory of Aging d. DNA Damage Theory of Aging.
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HOW DO WE CURE AGING?
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54:39–1:08:39 : CHAPTER 3 :The Biochemical Solution (#1)
a. mitoSENS
b. oncoSENS
c. lysoSENS
d. amyloSENS
e. apoptoSENS
f. repliSENS
g. glycoSENS
1:08:40–2:13:12 CHAPTER 4 : The Physiological Solution (#2)
a. Parabiosis and Biovampirism b. Regeneration and Stem Cells c. Lab Grown Organs and Bioprinting d. Head Transplants and Doppleganger Bodies.
2:13:12–2:33:19 CHAPTER 5 : The Genetic Solution (#3)
a. TALEN genetic engineering b. Zinc-Finger gene tailoring c. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing.
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WILL WE CURE AGING GENETICALLY?
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2:33:20–2:49:58 : CHAPTER 6 : Genomics and DNA
2:49:59–3:05:48 : CHAPTER 7 : Transcriptomics and RNA
3:05:49–3:22:08 : CHAPTER 8 : Proteomics and TNA
3:22:09–3:39:38 : CHAPTER 9 : Xenobiology and XNA
a. alien proteins b. alien base pairs c. alien DNA
3:39:39–3:54:58 : CHAPTER 10 : Vectors and Gene Therapy (Gene Editing #1)
3:54:59–4:14:57 : CHAPTER 11 : Synthetic Biology (Gene Editing #2)
4:14:58–4:32:14 : CHAPTER 12 : Chimeras, Rianths, and Splices (Gene Editing #3)
4:32:15–4:48:35 : CHAPTER 13 : Ouroborology and Immortal Chimeras (Gene Editing #4)
4:48:36-:5:03:52 : CHAPTER 14 : Kleptoplasty and Photosynthesis (Gene Editing #5)
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HOW TO SURVIVE UNTIL AGING IS CURED
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5:03:53–5:14:27 : CHAPTER 15 : Survive to the Singularity a. the breakeven point b. longevity escape velocity c. the longevity dividend.
5:14:28–5:30:16 : CHAPTER 16 : Centennarians and Blue Zones (Survival Method #0)
a. loma linda b. ikaria c. sardinia d. okinawa.
5:30:17–5:42:26 : CHAPTER 17 : Risk Aversion and Micromorts (Survival Method #1)
a. micromorts
b.microlives
5:42:27–5:58:18 : CHAPTER 18 : Nutraceuticals and Geroprotectors (Survival Method #2)
a. rapamycin b. metformin c. selegilene d. nicotinamide riboside e. resverratrol.
5:58:19–6:12:51 : CHAPTER 19 : Caloric Restriction (Survival Method #3)
a. endocrine b. epigenetic c. genetic
6:12:52–6:51:57 : CHAPTER 20 : Cryonics & Cryogenics (Survival Method #4)
a. the efficacy question b. the cost question c. the resurrection question d. the identity question e. the legal question f. the catastrophe question g. the culture question.
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CAN WE BE IMMORTAL WITHOUT CURING AGING?
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6:51:58–7:04:08 : CHAPTER 21 : Genetic Immortality — Test Tube Babies
7:04:09–7:24:02 : CHAPTER 22 : Genetic Immortality — Designer Babies
7:24:03–7:41:55 : CHAPTER 23 : Genetic Immortality — Clone Babies
7:41:56–7:53:08 : CHAPTER 24 : Genetic Immortality — Artificial Wombs
7:53:08–7:53:09 CHAPTER 25 : Immortalism and Ethics a. the crime argument b. the natural argument c. the boredom argument d. the inequality argument e. the overpopulation argument f. the gerontocracy argument g. the economic argument h. EPILOGUE

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New technique makes it easier to build stable “tissues”.

Researchers claim to have 3D-printed skin that’s alive and has blood vessels. The new technique could greatly accelerate the healing process for patients who require skin grafts, such as burn victims. In an animal trial phase, the printed skin even connected to a mouse’s own blood vessels.

This could be a game changer for burn victims.

This wearable gill could help you breathe underwater.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a way to 3D print living skin, complete with blood vessels. The advancement, published online today in Tissue Engineering Part A, is a significant step toward creating grafts that are more like the skin our bodies produce naturally.

“Right now, whatever is available as a clinical product is more like a fancy Band-Aid,” said Pankaj Karande, an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering and member of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS), who led this research at Rensselaer. “It provides some accelerated wound healing, but eventually it just falls off; it never really integrates with the host cells.”

Continue reading “Living skin can now be 3D-printed with blood vessels included” »