'People used to stare at my disfigurement. Now they can stare in amazement'

'People used to stare at my disfigurement. Now they can stare in amazement'

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The Sydney Morning Herald, October 20, 2012

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WASHINGTON: A man who spent 15 years as a recluse after suffering injuries in a gun accident says his life has been transformed by a facial transplant.

Richard Lee Norris, 37, received the full face transplant in a 36-hour operation in March. It involved replacing both jaws, teeth, tongue, skin and underlying nerve and muscle tissue from his scalp to his neck. Now, seven months on, doctors say he eats primarily by mouth and can taste and smell.

''For the past 15 years I lived as a recluse, hiding behind a surgical mask and doing most of my shopping at night when fewer people were around,'' Mr Norris said. ''People used to stare at me because of my disfigurement. Now they can stare at me in amazement and in the transformation I have made. I am now able to walk past people and no one even gives me a second look.

Richard Norris shown now, during his recovery and before his face transplant seven months ago after he was injured in a 1997 gun accident.

''My friends have moved on with their lives, starting families and careers. I can now start working on the life given back to me.''

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Mr Norris continues to gain sensation in his face and is able to smile and show expression. His doctors say the motor function on the right side of his face is about 80 per cent normal and on the left side about 40 per cent.

Mr Norris's operation is the 23rd face transplant since doctors began doing the procedure seven years ago. The transplant was carried out by more than 150 doctors, nurses and other staff, under the professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Eduardo Rodriguez.

''Our goal for Richard from the beginning was to restore facial harmony and functional balance in the most aesthetic manner possible through the complex transplantation of the facial bones, nerves, muscles, tongue, teeth and the associated soft tissues,'' Professor Rodriguez said.

''Richard is exceeding my expectations this soon after his surgery, and he deserves a great deal of credit for the countless hours spent practising his speech and strengthening his new facial muscles. He's one of the most courageous and committed individuals I know.''

Much of the research into the technology behind Mr Norris's surgery began in response to injuries suffered by US soldiers.

with Associated Press

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/data-point/people-used-to-stare-at-my-disfigurement-now-they-can-stare-in-amazement-20121019-27wmd.html#ixzz29tWpxfgR

This is really interesting. We need to urgently address how we consume fossil fuel. If this can work, imagine the amount of jet fuel saved.

Until the next time, cheers.

Solar dream takes flight

AFP, July 8, 2012

Touchdown ... experimental sun powered, Solar Impulse. Photo: Reuters

A solar-powered plane has landed in Spain on its way home from breaking a record with the first intercontinental flight by an aircraft run on the sun's energy.

Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard piloted the experimental Solar Impulse on the 17-hour flight from Rabat in Morocco.

The 54-year-old landed at Madrid's main airport early on Saturday, his team said in a statement.

The plane, which is made of carbon fibre and flies without fuel, is on its way back to Switzerland after last month flying from Spain to Morocco, the first time a solar-powered aircraft has crossed continents.

The flights are a rehearsal for an attempted round-the-world trip in 2014 by an updated version of the plane.

The 900-kilometre Morocco to Spain leg was "a particularly tactically challenging flight" at an average of 60km/h with the plane hitting strong crosswinds, the team said.

AFP

Good to read about progress made to save lives. So much good can be done if we put our mind to it.

Until the next time, cheers.

Smartphone stethoscope in with a chance

Sydney Morning Herald, July 8, 2012

A MEDICAL device that could saves the lives of millions of Third World children is the Australian entry in an international competition to find software solutions to global problems.

The digital stethoscope is attached to a smartphone, which listens to and digitises a pneumonia patient's breathing sounds and patterns. Those patterns are then compared against a medical database using cloud technology to deliver an automated diagnosis and treatment plan via an app on the smartphone.

It's cheap, doesn't rely on the need for delicate medical equipment in remote locations, and appears to be a promising candidate to win the Imagine Cup, a showcase for young academic talent for which 75 countries are competing at the Sydney Convention Centre.

Lifesaver … the digital stethoscope. Photo: Mick Tsikas

Hon Wen Chong, 26, heading the Australian entry from the University of Melbourne, said the technology was being reviewed by the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne to attain research status before field trials.

Mr Chong, who has almost completed his studies to become a doctor, said: ''We need to do a research trial to validate the system and check that it survives in rain and hail. We need to ensure that it is safe. The last thing we want to do is create an app or intervention that kills more people than it is supposed to save.''

Other ideas in the competition include:

Germany A navigation system to reduce the emission of cars. The system can calculate the best route for each car and communicate that to each driver. It reportedly helps drivers save time, avoid traffic jams and reduce carbon monoxide emissions.

Kazakhstan A cloud-based system called Archangel designed for people who are in emergency situations. It consists of mobile and desktop applications and a drone, which can be used to deliver first-aid kits, medicines or other necessities.

Jordan A ''dancing pillow'' that wakes hearing-impaired individuals and those with sleep disorders using light, vibration, sound and smell.

It looks like more and more breakthrough in the fields of bioscience. Hope there will be proper control before we make a real frankenstein.

Until the next time, cheers.

Girl gets vein grown from her own stem cells for transplant

Alok Jha

Guardian News & Media June 15, 2012

 

LONDON: Scientists have successfully transplanted a vein made from a 10-year-old girl's own stem cells into her body. It is the first time such an operation has been reported and marks an important step in the practical ability of doctors to use stem cells to grow replacement cells for damaged or diseased tissue.

Writing in the medical journal The Lancet, a team led by Professor Suchitra Sumitran-Holdgersson, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, described how the girl had a blocked hepatic portal vein, which takes blood away from the gut and spleen to the liver.

The blockage can lead to complications including internal bleeding, developmental problems and even death. The usual treatment for the condition is to remove the blocked vein and replace it with sections of healthy vein from other parts of the body.

The team instead grew a vein for the young girl using her own bone marrow stem cells.

They started with a nine-centimetre section of vein taken from the groin of a donor and stripped it of its cells, leaving behind a tubular protein scaffold. This was seeded with the girl's stem cells and the resulting vein was transplanted into the girl.

The procedure restored blood flow out of her liver immediately.

''The patient increased in height from 137 to 143 centimetres and increased in weight from 30 to 35 kilograms in the one year since the first operation,'' the authors wrote. ''Although we undertook no neurocognitive tests, the parents reported that the patient had enhanced physical activity (increased long distance walks of two to three kilometres and light gymnastics) and improved articulated speech and concentration power in school activities.''

Nine months after the operation, the vein had constricted slightly in size and this was corrected in a follow-up procedure. Most significantly, scientists found no antibodies for the donor vein in the girl's blood. Her body was not rejecting the transplant because it was recognised as being made of her own cells.

''The young girl in this report was spared the trauma of having veins harvested from the deep neck or leg with the associated risk of lower limb disorders, and avoided the need for a liver or multivisceral transplantation,'' Professors Martin Birchall and George Hamilton of University College London wrote in an accompanying commentary article in The Lancet.

''Although the graft had to be extended by a second stem cell-based graft at one year, she has an improved exercise tolerance and evidence of improved cognition. Thus, in a long-term economic analysis, the substantial price for a one-off, personalised treatment can be justified. However, acute pressures on health systems mean that this argument might be impractical in larger numbers of patients.''

Professors Birchall and Hamilton said the procedure might get cheaper as medical companies start producing protein scaffolds from human and animal sources more efficiently.

They concluded that Professor Sumitran-Holdgersson's work was promising but it needed to be properly tested in full clinical trials if such regenerative medicine treatments were to become widely used and accepted.

This is truly amazing.....

Until the next time, cheers.

The Telegraph, Monday, 11 June 2012

Human bones grown from fat in laboratory

Scientists have grown human bone from stem cells in a laboratory.

Dr Shai Meretzki, chief executive of Bonus BioGroup, with the human bones grown from stem cells 

 

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent

Scientists have grown human bone from stem cells in a laboratory. 

The development opens the way for patients to have broken bones repaired or even replaced with entire new ones grown outside the body from a patient's own cells. 

The researchers started with stem cells taken from fat tissue. It took around a month to grow them into sections of fully-formed living human bone up to a couple of inches long. 

The first trial in patients is on course to be conducted later this year, by an Israeli biotechnology company that has been working with academics on the technology. 

Professor Avinoam Kadouri, head of the scientific advisory board for Bonus BioGroup, said: "There is a need for artificial bones for injuries and in operations.

"We use three dimensional structures to fabricate the bone in the right shape and geometry. We can grow these bones outside the body and then transplant it to the patient at the right time.

"By scanning the damaged bone area, the implant should fit perfectly and merge with the surrounding tissue. There are no problems with rejection as the cells come from the patient's own body." 

The technology, which has been developed along with researchers at the Technion Institute of Research in Israel, uses three dimensional scans of the damaged bone to build a gel-like scaffold that matches the shape. 

Stem cells, known as mesenchymal stem cells, which have the capacity to develop into many other types of cell in the body, are obtained from the patient's fat using liposuction. 

These are then grown into living bone on the scaffold inside a "bioreactor" – an automated machine that provides the right conditions to encourage the cells to develop into bone. 

Already animals have successfully received bone transplants. The scientists were able to insert almost an inch of laboratory-grown human bone into the middle section of a rat's leg bone, where it successfully merged with the remaining animal bone.

The technique could ultimately allow doctors to replace bones that have been smashed in accidents, fill in defects where bone is missing such as cleft palate, or carry out reconstructive plastic surgery. 

Professor Kadouri said work was also under way to grow the soft cartilage at the ends of bones, which is needed if entire bones are to be produced in a laboratory. 

Bone grafts currently involve taking bits of bone from elsewhere in the patients body and transplanting them to the area which is damaged to encourage healing. 

More than 250,000 bone grafts are performed in the UK each year, including repairs to damaged jaws and the replacement of bone lost in operations to remove tumours. 

This technique requires the patient to undergo two traumatic operations. In other cases bone is obtained from donations, but can be rejected by the body. 

As the new technique uses cells from the patient's own body, it reduces the chance of the new bone being rejected. 

Dr Shai Meretzki, chief executive of Bonus BioGroup, added that they hoped to develop the technology in the future to provide replacements for damaged joints such as hips. 

He said: "It is the same type of technology, but the equipment would be different for bigger bones."

A number of research teams around the world are developing techniques for regrowing bone using stem cells, but most have used a different kind of stem cell and injected them into the patient rather than growing them into bones outside the body for transplant. 

Professor Alicia El Haj, head of the regenerative medicine group at Keele University, has been involved in clinical trial using cells taken from cartilage and has treated 450 patients with the technique. Her team has started conducting trials to repair gaps in patient's bones using cells from bone marrow. 

She said: "Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells are much less common when used medically, but are easier to obtain. 

"There are a lot of people coming up with cells that can be used to repair bone but there are not many progressing to produce tissues that can be grown outside of the body and used clinically. 

"If a company is starting to do this, then it is an important step."