Jeannine
09-25-2009, 01:53 PM
Coaxing stem cells to repair damaged tissue
In a car wreck, the dashboard crushes the driver's knees and takes a divot out of his cartilage. Or, on a battlefield, shrapnel tears flesh from a soldier's face and a slice from the cornea of his eye.
Surgeons will do their best to repair these injuries. But bioengineers are working toward a future in which a combination of surgery and new materials will coax stem cells and the body's own repair mechanisms to regenerate tissues that trauma has taken away.
Among those in the forefront of the research is Jennifer Elisseeff, an associate professor in the biomedical engineering department at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Continues...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bal-stem0925-manual,0,3644660.story
In a car wreck, the dashboard crushes the driver's knees and takes a divot out of his cartilage. Or, on a battlefield, shrapnel tears flesh from a soldier's face and a slice from the cornea of his eye.
Surgeons will do their best to repair these injuries. But bioengineers are working toward a future in which a combination of surgery and new materials will coax stem cells and the body's own repair mechanisms to regenerate tissues that trauma has taken away.
Among those in the forefront of the research is Jennifer Elisseeff, an associate professor in the biomedical engineering department at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Continues...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bal-stem0925-manual,0,3644660.story