Science Note: Nanotech to the Rescue

It seems that the only good news these days comes from science:

This graphic shows the results of a breakthrough discovery called
tissue nanotransfection. In laboratory tests at The Ohio State
University Wexner Medical Center, researchers were able to heal the
badly injured legs of mice in just three weeks, with no other
treatments, simply by touching the legs once with a high-tech silicone chip.

Researchers have developed a device that can switch cell function to rescue failing body functions with a single touch. The technology, known as Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT), injects genetic code into skin cells, turning those skin cells into other types of cells required for treating diseased conditions.

“It takes just a fraction of a second. You simply touch the chip to the wounded area, then remove it,” said Chandan Sen, PhD, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Cell-Based Therapies at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “At that point, the cell reprogramming begins.”

In a series of lab tests, researchers applied the chip to the injured legs of mice that vascular scans showed had little to no blood flow. “We reprogrammed their skin cells to become vascular cells,” Sen said. “Within a week we began noticing the transformation.”

By the second week, active blood vessels had formed, and by the third week, the legs of the mice were saved—with no other form of treatment.

“It extends the concept known as gene therapy, and it has been around for quite some time,” said study collaborator James Lee, PhD, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State. “The difference with our technology is how we deliver the DNA into the cells.”

The implications are, to say the least, staggering.

"Better Living Through Technology" -- with a nod to Hugo Gernsback.

(Via Joe.My.God.)