This endearing little ant can be intrust to carry quite a lot on its back in the involvement of the vulgar good . In that way , it ’s surprisingly similar to the cells of your immune system , as researcher from MIT and Harvard divulge in the beginning this calendar month . They ’ve found a path to hook synthetic patch to the surface of B and T cell — and to control the movements of those cells with magnetic fields . Armed with these so - called “ rucksack , ” lymphocytes can now identify grow neoplasm and infections , as well as personally ( or cellularly ? ) deliver treatment to ailing cells . This could be the first summit of a waving of revolutionary young schooltime supplies in the cosmos of tissue engineering .
This is n’t to say that vitamin B and T cells will be pressure to do our bid . “ The end is to unhinge the cell as piffling as potential , ” pronounce Robert Cohen , one of the generator of the paper in Nano Letters . Each synthetical patch only covers a small part of the cell ’s airfoil , so the cell can still contain out its normal function without disturbance . In fact , “ backpack ” is a nigh - sodding doctrine of analogy for this technology . The synthetic patch software lie in of three level of polyelectrolytes ( certain types of polymer ) . at heart , the middle layer is whatever the scientists want the cell to be carrying : model admit a vaccine , a protein mark , or magnetic nanoparticles for control charge . The bottom bed of the plot of land is a polymer that impound to the surface of the resistant cell , and the top layer binds to other cells . If you squint while you ’re see this video ( good manners of MIT TechTV ) , the hordes of marauding B cell kind of look like pismire with backpacks : Click to viewNow that we know human immune cells can carry a bit of supererogatory loading , it ’s time to start thinking about how we can use that capability to treat Cancer the Crab or ameliorate our bioimaging — or if you prefer , what kind of pencil loge and notebook computer will go into these fresh cellular backpacks . folio - cutter ant effigy fromWikimedia Commons . Surface - functionalized cellular telephone diagram courtesy American Chemical Society . Tiny backpacks for cells[MIT News Office]Surface functionalization of living cells with multilayer patches[Nano Letters ]
HarvardMad Biologytissue engineering
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