Reprogramming Our Own Cells to Treat Major Health Problems

We've made some significant advancements in medical treatments in the past 10 years.  Notwithstanding are advancements in the use of stem cells to treat a variety of otherwise incurable diseases and conditions.

Stem cells are essentially cells we have in our bodies that can be transformed into any other tissue and since they carry our own DNA, if we're able to do just that in a controlled fashion, we can replace other tissues that have been damaged or are missing (as in the case of losing skin (epithelial cells) or even an organ.

Well, thanks to a better understanding of how the cell works and stem cells in general, we are now on our way to be able to cure degenerative auto-immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) by sectioning and curating a patient's healthy bone marrow stem cells to replace the damaged immune system.

We can reprogram a patient's stem cells and place them in the joints of arthritis patients so that the cells start repairing damaged cartilage and make the pain go away.

Need a new organ?  We're working on ways to use stem cells to grow new organs too.  This is in my opinion a better option than the 3D printed organs we're also experimenting with, as mentioned in a past blog).  Growing an organ uses the DNA road map within our cells to make an organ but takes time to grow.  Meanwhile 3D printing an organ could potentially be way faster but perhaps create organs that are less cohesive on a cellular level that one that is slowly grown properly.

One of the most interesting and innovative devices I've seen in medicine recently though, is a bio-chip that delivers specific macro-molecules, such as DNA and perhaps others, to reprogram skin cells to become other types of cells that are needed more at a certain location on the body.  Based on my reading, one only need to touch the chip on the problem area, on the skin, and cells below the skin in connected to the touched area receives the chip's instructions and starts to properly reprogram themselves to become other cell types, such as blood vessels, muscle tissue etc...  The team working on this from Ohio State University's College of Engineering and Wexner Medical Center also say they've done tests to reprogram cells into neurons.  All of this works well in trial on animals such as mice and there is great hope that it would work on humans too.

I elaborate more about what this means for the future of our health in the video below:

Suffice to say that the manipulation of the cells of the patients, whether they be stem cells, skin cells or other cells, to create new health tissues where it is most needed, is definitively key to eradicating some truly serious issues, including auto-immune diseases, serious injuries, organ failures or loss, and many other conditions that up until now could only be controlled in some way.

We're on a very interesting path where we are able to use medical technology to fix complex biological systems like the human body in much the same way as we fix cars nowadays.  Got some problem?  Not feeling well?  Use a smartphone application to self-diagnose first, then go to the clinic for a second opinion and to get the appropriate body part fixed or changed for a new one (from your own cell stock).  You leave the clinic feeling better and with perhaps a brand new fully functional part, ready to take on the day.

Think it's fantasy?  It really isn't. 

Are we there yet?  Not quite.  This is all experimental and going to clinical trials.  However, in about 10 years from now, the notion of fixing your body like bringing your car to the body shop won't sound so science fiction at all.

3D Printing Human Replacement Organs

It is indeed really fascinating at how far we've gone with 3D printing in just a few years.  3D printing started off experimentally and then moved into some specific industrial applications as early as the 1980's but it only became a commercial product, albeit expensive, around the year 2009.  (History of 3D printing).

Since then, 3D printing has become well known in every household.  Though most houses don't have one such device, most houses now have some gadget, widget or device that was either partially or fully built using 3D printing technology.  Not to mention that you can buy your very own 3D printer on the Internet and in home improvement stores too for less than $300 if you shop around.

Because 3D printing technology has advanced enough to deal with multiple materials nowadays as well as being able to scale up (3D printed houses), and down.  Historically, they were used to prototype small things but now we are able to 3D print very complex tiny structures.  Now we are working at all sizes.  There are still a number of issues we're working out, primarily being the techniques for 3D printing don't provide much refinement in the finished material, hence why the technique is still mostly used for prototyping or rough work that we know will require some finish in the end anyway.  Engineers are working on it.

What is amazing is in the last couple years, 3D printers were designed to 3D print tissues, both animal and human.  The exciting aspect of this, is in medical research where usually the research is done on animals first, before a medicine or surgery technique is used on humans.  It is a long process and even though some animals have tissue and body structures similar to humans, their body chemistry is different and it often means that a new drug successful at treating a problem in an animal, won't work or work as well when the human trials come up.

As far as I know, we've managed to use 3D printers to make human organs.  The first interesting one is our current ability to 3D print human skin.  This is exciting because burn victims often need compatible skin for grafting.  With a 3D printer, specialists can now use the patient's cells to make grafts (along with a stock of compatible skin).  Also, with this technology, we can easily experiment on human skin bypassing much of the work that is required on animals in the path of drug development.

I go more in depth on this in the video below, in particular talking about future applications:

Now skin is one thing, but printing more complex organs is still a challenge.  Well, turns out that a lab at Northwestern University of Chicago has been able to 3D print functioning mouse ovaries that later were capable to produce mouse pups.  Humans would logically be the next step.  Can you imagine women losing their ovaries due to some disease or accident and being able to get new ovaries 3D printed and then implanted in to them, making them fertile again?

Of course, other labs are using similar cellular techniques, mainly using human pluripotent cells, to successfully generate other functioning organs, like human colon and human livers, both of which are extremely complicated organs.  Of course, they are not able to currently grow them to full human size, but they seem to be able to do the job they are supposed to do.  The issue of size is still being worked on as larger organs need a network of blood vessels to feed and oxygenate cells near the middle of the organs, and it is extremely difficult right now to do so as the organ grows.  Perhaps when we are able to 3D print these quickly, it'll be feasible.

Give it a few years and we may hear about those organs being printed fully ready for implantation and full size, using the patient's own cells (thus avoiding issues with immune response and rejection.

All in all, we're constantly working out ways to being able to properly replace failing body parts using the patient's own cell stock, which should be super exciting for anyone with serious organic ailments, missing organs, or requiring transplants in the next few years.

It won't be long after when we'll be able to 3D print fully formed human bodies with refined organic tissue 3D printing technologies....

Can I have my 20 year old body back?  (assuming one could transfer my knowledge, experience and everything that makes me ME, into the brand new body....).    Something to start getting used to...