128. Radioactive Tumor Killing Implant, 3D Printing Plant Cells, Step Into A Video w/ VR

Summary: Show Notes Radioactive implant wipes tumors in unprecedented pre-clinical success | New Atlas (00:52) Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat, with tumor cells of this type highly evasive and loaded with mutations that make them resistant to many drugs.  3.2 percent of all cancers, yet is the third leading cause of cancer-related death Engineers at Duke University have developed a novel delivery system for cancer treatment and demonstrated its potential against one of the disease’s most troublesome forms A radioactive implant completely eliminated tumors in the majority of the rodents The team wanted to figure out a way to implant into the tumor without causing damage to the surrounding tissue. Created one from more biocompatible materials (instead of titanium)  that wouldn’t post the same risks to the human body. Synthetic chains of amino acids known as elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), which form a stable gel-like material in the warmer environment of the body. This substance was injected into tumors in various mouse models of pancreatic cancer along with a radioactive element called iodine-131. ELP entombs the iodine-131 and prevents it from leaking into the body. Allows it to emit beta radiation that penetrates into the surrounding tumor. Once the radiation is spent, the ELP biogel safely degrades into harmless amino acids. The treatment was tested in combination with a common chemotherapy drug called paclitaxel. Across all the models tested, the scientists report a 100% response rate to the treatment.  In three quarters of the models, the dual treatment completely eliminated the tumors 80% of the time. The scientists deployed the novel treatment against pancreatic cancer because they wanted to explore its potential against one of the trickiest forms of the disease, but believe these results bode well for its wider application. Study author Jeff Schaal, explains the significance of their finding: “We did a deep dive through over 1,100 treatments across preclinical models and never found results where the tumors shrank away and disappeared like ours did … When the rest of the literature is saying that what we're seeing doesn't happen, that's when we knew we had something extremely interesting." In a first, scientists grow fully mature hair follicles in cultures | Interesting Engineering (07:12) According to a press release, researchers from Japan generated hair follicles in cultures while working on the processes of hair follicle growth and hair pigmentation.  Could contribute to the development of different applications such as hair loss treatment, animal testing and drug screenings. Scientists have been trying to understand the essential mechanisms of hair follicle development through animal models for a long while. Hair follicle morphogenesis wasn’t something that could be reproduced in a culture dish until now. Morphogenesis is the process when the outer layer of skin and the connective tissue interacts while the embryo develops. Researchers built hair follicle organoids by controlling the structure generated from the two types of embryonic cells tapping into a low concentration of extracellular matrices. Extracellular matrix is a network that supplies structure for cells and tissue in the body. These matrices change the spacing between the two types of embryonic cells from a dumbbell-shape to core-shell configuration.  Fully mature hair follicles with approximately 3 millimeter (mm)-long hair shafts were produced by the hair follicle organoids on the 23rd day of being cultured. Researchers included a melanocyte-stimulating drug that helps produce hair color pigmentation in the culture medium.  The findings could help understand how physiological and pathological processes develop in relation to other organ systems as well.  Junji Fukuda, a professor with the faculty of engineering at Yokohama National University, speaks on nex