UC Science Today

The spongy discs between each vertebra help absorb shock and allow for movement in the spine. Current treatment for damaged discs include implanting a metal disc as a total replacement. Now, a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley is engineering new, living disc tissue that could someday be used as a biological replacement. Study leader Grace O’Connell explains.

"We apply cell-based tissue engineering techniques, which means we take cells and we put them within a scaffold. And over a period of about six weeks, the cells will grow new tissue. And we’re looking to see if those cells can grow tissue that behaves like the healthy tissue."

O’Connell says that growing new disc tissue could eventually replace the need for implanting synthetic materials that can wear out over time.

"We know that the plastic and metal components, they wear over time. So they last about 15 to 20 years in a patient. But the idea is that an engineered tissue is a biological tissue. So it would behave like your native tissue does as well."

The spongy discs between each vertebra help absorb shock and allow for movement in the spine. Current treatment for damaged discs include implanting a metal disc as a total replacement. Now, a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley is engineering new, living disc tissue that could someday be used as a biological replacement. Study leader Grace O’Connell explains.

"We apply cell-based tissue engineering techniques, which means we take cells and we put them within a scaffold. And over a period of about six weeks, the cells will grow new tissue. And we’re looking to see if those cells can grow tissue that behaves like the healthy tissue."

O’Connell says that growing new disc tissue could eventually replace the need for implanting synthetic materials that can wear out over time.

"We know that the plastic and metal components, they wear over time. So they last about 15 to 20 years in a patient. But the idea is that an engineered tissue is a biological tissue. So it would behave like your native tissue does as well."

The spongy discs between each vertebra help absorb shock and allow for movement in the spine. Current treatment for damaged discs include implanting a metal disc as a total replacement. Now, a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley is engineering new, living disc tissue that could someday be used as a biological replacement. Study leader Grace O’Connell explains.

"We apply cell-based tissue engineering techniques, which means we take cells and we put them within a scaffold. And over a period of about six weeks, the cells will grow new tissue. And we’re looking to see if those cells can grow tissue that behaves like the healthy tissue."

O’Connell says that growing new disc tissue could eventually replace the need for implanting synthetic materials that can wear out over time.

"We know that the plastic and metal components, they wear over time. So they last about 15 to 20 years in a patient. But the idea is that an engineered tissue is a biological tissue. So it would behave like your native tissue does as well."

In an effort to speed up drug discovery and development, a team of scientists has developed a novel cardiac system that could soon be used to screen drugs in pre-clinical trials. Study leader Kevin Healy of the University of California, Berkeley says this microphysiological system is an inch-long device that houses human heart tissues and measures their beat rate in response to various drugs.

"We use common drugs that patients would take, like beta blockers, basically drugs to accelerate heart rate, drugs to decrease heart rate, and these are drugs that are prescribed by cardiologists to different patients for various clinical reasons."

Healy says as long as the drugs affect the heart, there are no limits to the types of drugs that can be tested with their system.

"We’re not limited by the types of drugs we test. So essentially anything that’s water soluble, their ability really to dissolve in water. Then our systems, our microphysiological systems are amendable to being targeted with these drugs, similar to how you would dissolve a drug in blood."

In an effort to speed up drug discovery and development, a team of scientists has developed a novel cardiac system that could soon be used to screen drugs in pre-clinical trials. Study leader Kevin Healy of the University of California, Berkeley says this microphysiological system is an inch-long device that houses human heart tissues and measures their beat rate in response to various drugs.

"We use common drugs that patients would take, like beta blockers, basically drugs to accelerate heart rate, drugs to decrease heart rate, and these are drugs that are prescribed by cardiologists to different patients for various clinical reasons."

Healy says as long as the drugs affect the heart, there are no limits to the types of drugs that can be tested with their system.

"We’re not limited by the types of drugs we test. So essentially anything that’s water soluble, their ability really to dissolve in water. Then our systems, our microphysiological systems are amendable to being targeted with these drugs, similar to how you would dissolve a drug in blood."

In an effort to speed up drug discovery and development, a team of scientists has developed a novel cardiac system that could soon be used to screen drugs in pre-clinical trials. Study leader Kevin Healy of the University of California, Berkeley says this microphysiological system is an inch-long device that houses human heart tissues and measures their beat rate in response to various drugs.

"We use common drugs that patients would take, like beta blockers, basically drugs to accelerate heart rate, drugs to decrease heart rate, and these are drugs that are prescribed by cardiologists to different patients for various clinical reasons."

Healy says as long as the drugs affect the heart, there are no limits to the types of drugs that can be tested with their system.

"We’re not limited by the types of drugs we test. So essentially anything that’s water soluble, their ability really to dissolve in water. Then our systems, our microphysiological systems are amendable to being targeted with these drugs, similar to how you would dissolve a drug in blood."

In an effort to speed up drug discovery and development, a team of scientists has developed a novel cardiac system that could soon be used to screen drugs in pre-clinical trials. Study leader Kevin Healy of the University of California, Berkeley says this microphysiological system is an inch-long device that houses human heart tissues and measures their beat rate in response to various drugs.

"We use common drugs that patients would take, like beta blockers, basically drugs to accelerate heart rate, drugs to decrease heart rate, and these are drugs that are prescribed by cardiologists to different patients for various clinical reasons."

Healy says as long as the drugs affect the heart, there are no limits to the types of drugs that can be tested with their system.

"We’re not limited by the types of drugs we test. So essentially anything that’s water soluble, their ability really to dissolve in water. Then our systems, our microphysiological systems are amendable to being targeted with these drugs, similar to how you would dissolve a drug in blood."

In an effort to speed up drug discovery and development, a team of scientists has developed a novel cardiac system that could soon be used to screen drugs in pre-clinical trials. Study leader Kevin Healy of the University of California, Berkeley says this microphysiological system is an inch-long device that houses human heart tissues and measures their beat rate in response to various drugs.

"We use common drugs that patients would take, like beta blockers, basically drugs to accelerate heart rate, drugs to decrease heart rate, and these are drugs that are prescribed by cardiologists to different patients for various clinical reasons."

Healy says as long as the drugs affect the heart, there are no limits to the types of drugs that can be tested with their system.

"We’re not limited by the types of drugs we test. So essentially anything that’s water soluble, their ability really to dissolve in water. Then our systems, our microphysiological systems are amendable to being targeted with these drugs, similar to how you would dissolve a drug in blood."

Accelerator mass spectrometry, or AMS, has been used for decades for radiocarbon dating and has since been used widely in biomedical research. At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, medical scientist Mike Malfatti says they’re now using smaller AMS technology that’s dedicated to biomedical studies.

"The AMS technology has come a long way since when we first started. Before it was a very big instrument that took up a warehouse-size room. Well, the technology has changed where machines are shrinking. And we’re hoping as things develop further we can have AMS machines that can be used in the clinics."

The National Institutes of Health is funding biomedical AMS work, including developing a test to predict how people will respond to chemotherapeutic drugs.

"This particular collaboration that we’re doing with UC Davis, we’re looking at the different chemotherapeutic drugs, how people respond to them, why some people will respond and some people won’t respond."

Accelerator mass spectrometry, or AMS, has been used for decades for radiocarbon dating and has since been used widely in biomedical research. At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, medical scientist Mike Malfatti says they’re now using smaller AMS technology that’s dedicated to biomedical studies.

"The AMS technology has come a long way since when we first started. Before it was a very big instrument that took up a warehouse-size room. Well, the technology has changed where machines are shrinking. And we’re hoping as things develop further we can have AMS machines that can be used in the clinics."

The National Institutes of Health is funding biomedical AMS work, including developing a test to predict how people will respond to chemotherapeutic drugs.

"This particular collaboration that we’re doing with UC Davis, we’re looking at the different chemotherapeutic drugs, how people respond to them, why some people will respond and some people won’t respond."