IB5 Stem Cell Research Logan Green

For my groups 10,000 solutions paper we decided to write on stem cell research.  There are many opposing viewpoints and arguments on it, and it is truly a problem that needs to be fixed and regulated because of its ungarnished potential.  If anyone knows anything and cares to have an opinion about stem cell research they can't deny the potential that is there.  There may or may not be ethical and moral boundaries within the field regardless but there is a way to tap into the potential there.  These opposing sides are convoluted within themselves and have a strong base of argument both for their side and against the opponents.  In order to make any headway and progress a solution must be found where any ignorant or conflicting reasoning are tossed aside in order to discuss a feasible COMPROMISE.  Without a compromise nothing can happen.  The religious argument will forgo any reason and the scientific pursuit will forgo any emotional appeal.   The solution is based in and upon the middle ground and equal terms between the two sides. 

The topic that my partners and I will be researching and writing our annotated bibliography on is stem cell research.  In the world today this is a very controversial topic and would seem to be one for a very long time.  The battle is between religion and the scientific community.  The religious perspective seems to have a firm stance on no stem cell research pertaining to aborted babies.  What most people seem to not understand is that they are not against, but support stem cells harvested from adult humans.  They see the vast knowledge and potential discoveries as a good thing to help mankind.  They are strictly against abortion and thus cannot and will not support stem cell research done by harvesting the cells from fetuses. People talk about solutions to this problem but do not realize that not a whole lot of compromise necessarily needs to be made.  Stem cell research can continue without any hindrance or obstacles by either side if and only if mature adult stem cells were used.  The problem lies in the desire for more, which in this case is not entirely a bad thing.  Scientists want more stem cells but there are more of these specialized cells in a fetus rather than an adult because a fetus is still forming.  A fetus since it is not fully developed has more of the universal stem cells.  Like I said this is not really a bad thing to want more because the more they have the more people they can help and the more lives they could affect or save.  The main thing that needs to be improved is communication between the two parties. 

Stem Cell research

For a couple of years now there has been a huge controversy with technology versus religion. The argument is that stem cells and the technology around it is mimicking god and trying to play the role of god and there are people who do not agree with what the technology can do. On the other hand scientists feel that it is a great scientific discovery that will change life as we know it and hopefully for the better. There should be a middle part where scientists and religion can meet and they can find a middle ground that they can work on. This is the concept of the solution, the scientist should be allowed to continue to advance in the technology if they want but there should be guidelines and restrictions like there is with other technologies and there should be a moral guideline that they must follow so that they can continue their research and everyone else can feel comfortable about it as well. These could be enforced different ways whether it be by the government or by just a simple agreement within the scientific community but this is a big argument that is getting in the way of the progress of technology and the progress of our society as well. These guidelines will be decided with the collaboration of the scientific community and with the religious community so it is not to be too bias one way or the other and so that there will be more of an agreement between one another. 

Outline of podcast script (The Thirsty Ear)

The Thirsty Ear

points of discussion
introduction

• what it is
• similarities to polymer printing
• how its different
• method and machinery used
• hydrogels
• replacement of ink
• cell cultures and encasement in hydrogel
• artificial organs that can grow with you without replacement
• aortic valves
• hearts

Break down and application

• Technical side
• How does the process work?
• defining jargon
• revolutionized process?
• Potential and application (now)

• made to order organs
• no rejection
• own cells being used
• cancer
• hemochromeostasis
• etc etc

• What population it will affect
• How it works compared to the human body
• What the process is capable of
• Who will be affected mostly
• how this has revolutionized tissue engineering
• INTERVIEW
• future of the field, more progress
• Other research in the field
• what other research is going on?
• how has this research helped the field of tissue engineering?
• What do we hope to see in the future?
• potential (then)
• entire limbs recreated
• entire bodies being printed?
• millions of what if’s
• INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
• introduction of person
• Ask about research that he is doing
• Ask about the technical side of it and about 3D printing technology
• Ask about the articles research impact in the field of tissue engineering
• Ask about what he sees the future of tissue engineering is going to be

article link:
https://docs.google.com/a/asu.edu/open?id=0B-9uqWQ-yCy_N2pmLXJyeWFwTkU

IB3 Article notes

The article talks about a research group that is researching the problem of not being able to get transplants or make prosthetics for people.  They solved this problem by creating their own transplants or you could say bioprosthetics which is capable of growing and can be easily integrated into the body and will be accepted because it can be made from the cells of the person they are making the transplant for. This would also solve the problem of having to figure out how to help the immune system accept the transplant because it will be made from their own cells. This experiment makes more complex structures that are made of different types of cells rather than just one and this is done by printing two scaffolds in the same structure and the scaffolds are filled with 2 different types of cells.

3D printing in this article is very similar to normal 3D printing of polymers but it is more complex because of the integration of cells in the structure that will grow within the structure and eventually will grow into the complex structure they wanted it to form. These improvements in bioprinting will improve the medical community in the way that transplants and prosthetics will be much more readily available and the chance of rejection will be highly reduced if not eliminated.

There are ideas in the paper that will not easily be understood without a little research back into the topic and prior knowledge is assumed for some parts. I feel like i had some of the prior knowledge that was required in the paper because of my prior internship in work that is very similar to this and i feel that the knowledge that is needed to understand most of what is going on in the article is easily learned but maybe not for some of the more technical parts.

• heart valve is critical to blood flow
• the efficiency is dictated by the shape, tissue, and biomechanics
• mechanical valves are good but high risk of clots
• tissue engineering looks a a viable replacement to invasive procedures and mechanical heart valves
• start with a type of biodegradable structural material made of fibrin and collagen 
• cells are than put on it to grow a valve
• inkjet, laser, and assisted bioprinting have made it possible to come up with more complex biomaterials
• 3D bioprinting has proven a good way to create 3D structures for things like blood vessels and liver
• hydrogel is in the relatively early stages of design
• it is has been studied in mainly simple structures 
• in hydrogelling a  gridded pattern of tissue is laid down for a support structure for the cells to sit upon
• the proper accuracy must be made of the grid pattern measuring overlap and gaps
• cells are placed on it to grow into the structure that it is laid out to be
• there is a multiple syringe method used to make complex structures
• the proper material is layered on to create the proper form for the tissue

IB 3 journal notes Logan Green

Journal summary
     The journal describes in detail how a group of scientists were able to overcome the problem of current prosthetics not being able to adapt and grow if they are placed in younger patients.  To solve this problem, they proposed a living prosthetic made of tissues that would grow, repair, and adapt itself to the growing patient.  To develop this living prosthetic, they turned to 3D bioprinting.  A process where the tissues are built cell by cell out of a printer and layered appropriately.  Prior to this experiment you essentially could only print with one "color" or cell type.   In order to overcome this to print a complex aortic valve, which has 2 cell types, they printed a hydrogel that embodied the different cells.  One hydrogell included one cell type and the second hydrogell had the second cell type.

Considering Larger Context
     Who else cares about this topic?
            This document is part of an ongoing conversation to discuss the limitations and improvements of the current prosthetic design and function in order to save lives.  Doctors and tissue engineers, and biomedical engineering all are part of this conversation and are directing their writings at the circle of influential people to the conversation, meaning they are writing to themselves and their colleagues.
     Ideas
             3D bioprinting was referenced as old news in this journal.  The group that published have been reworking the process using hydrogels in order to improve the application of 3D bioprinting in medical  prosthetic use.  Problems have been pointed out with abiotic mechanical prosthetics and 3D bioprinting allows living tissue to be used as a prosthetic.  again issues were present that prevented widespread application of this technique and limited what could be replaced, until now.
     Terms
             There are terms in here that reflect an elitest community of professionals, but that is what to be expected from a medical  academic journal.   Assumptions of prior knowledge are made and the writers neglect what they look at as commonplace knowledge, that anyone who hasn't gone to med school will not know without the help of a dictionary.
    Citations
         There are many citations from other medical journal entries.  Because of this, the paper almost seems like a specific section of a newspaper that includes of all of the works in the references.  It is simply a part to whole, yet its own individual experiment and work done by the group of scientists.