Good Tissue Bank Standards of Practice
What helps make a tissue bank good? Following Standards of Practice (SOPs) in tissue banking is vital to ensure that every step of human tissue procurement, preparation, and distribution is held to the highest standards. This is done to ensure the safety, quality, and traceability of tissues for surgical use. The internal Standards of Practice […]
How could COVID-19 impact allograft safety?
It is well known that viruses can sequester in organs and tissues, creating the possibility of transmission during transplant. Until more is known about COVID-19 transmission and sequestration, it’s best to presume that there could be potential risks to patients receiving allografts. Therefore, implementation of guidelines which restrict tissue donation are necessary to preserve the […]
Organs are Allografts, Too!
Did you know that organs are also a type of allograft? We usually think of skin, tendons, bone, and heart valves as allografts, but solid organs are also allografts, which are defined as “a tissue or organ obtained from one member of a species and grafted to a genetically dissimilar member of the same species.”1 […]
What is CRISPR? A Primer
CRISPR is known as a cutting-edge tool for gene editing. Would you be surprised to learn that that CRISPR originally evolved within single-celled organisms such as bacteria, as their own immune response to viruses? When viruses attack a bacterial cell, they inject their genome—their own viral DNA—into the cell. The bacterial cell, in turn, responds […]
First Commercial Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Plant Opens in Japan
The first commercial facility to produce induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) opened on March 22, 2018. The $340 million, 30,000 square foot facility was built by Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and is designed to produce stem cells for therapeutic applications.1 Sumitomo Dainippon is currently involved in using iPSCs to create treatments for conditions including macular degeneration, […]
Understanding Stem Cells Part 2: Ready for the Clinic?
With advances in research and technology, using stem cells for their regenerative potential has become a reality. But many stem cell treatments on the market have been marketed to the public and applied clinically without scientific evidence of efficacy. Worse, some treatments with stem cells have caused serious adverse events. Provided that cell and tissue […]
Understanding Stem Cells, Part 1: Stem Cells 101
Stem cells are a promising regenerative medicine tool and treatment. So much information on stem cell research exists that sorting through the facts and the hype can be daunting. This post will focus on explaining stem cell basics: What are stem cells, and what are the different types? Here, we will focus on adult stem […]
3D Printed Tissues From Bench to Bedside
3D bioprinting has the potential to provide significant medical advances. For example, 3D printing of functional tissues and organs could someday alleviate shortages in organ availability and the problem of organ incompatibility. But where does the field stand today? A look at the research benches of top labs can give us an idea. In this post […]
Hot Topics: Zika Virus and Allografts, Part 1
Since the Zika outbreak first began in Brazil in late 2015,1 its spread has been of significant concern to the medical community. First identified due to the significant rise in microcephaly among newborns in Brazil…
Hot Topics: Zika Virus and Allografts, Part 2
There is presently no test available to detect the presence of Zika virus in allograft tissues. This may change if the Procleix Zika Virus Assay now being investigated proves to be an accurate and reliable test…
3D Printing in Tissue Engineering
Three-dimensional (3D) printing was developed in the early 1990s at MIT by by Sachs, Haggerty, Cima, and Williams.1 It is a freeform fabrication method that uses regular inkjet printheads to fabricate objects by printing binders onto loose powders in a powder bed.2 What can be made in 3D printing depends on what is used as […]