3D Printed Human Livers?

A fascinating item from Computer World:

Advances in the 3D printing of human tissue have moved fast enough that San Diego-based bio-printing company Organovo now expects to unveil the world's first printed organ -- a human liver -- next year. Like other forms of 3D printing, bio-printing lays down layer after layer of material -- in this case, live cells -- to form a solid physical entity -- in this case, human tissue. The major stumbling block in creating tissue continues to be manufacturing the vascular system needed to provide it with life-sustaining oxygen and nutrients. Living cells may literally die before the tissue gets off the printer table. Organovo, however, said it has overcome that vascular issue to a degree. "We have achieved thicknesses of greater than 500 microns, and have maintained liver tissue in a fully functional state with native phenotypic behavior for at least 40 days," said Mike Renard, Organovo's executive vice president of commercial operations.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

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Posted in: medicine,science,technology

Researcher Resigns After Confessing To Faking AIDS Vaccine Results

An Iowa State University professor has resigned after confessing that he falsified blood samples to make it appear that an AIDS vaccine was working.

Dong-Pyou Han was an assistant professor of biomedical sciences. He resigned in October after admitting responsibility, an ISU spokesman said. The fraudulent results helped an ISU research team gain millions of dollars in federal money, according to James Bradac, who helps oversee AIDS vaccine grants for the National Institutes of Health. Bradac said in a phone interview Monday that Han apparently added human blood components to the rabbit blood to skew experiments' results. He said this was the worst case of research fraud he'd seen in his 24 years at the federal agency. The human blood came from people whose bodies had produced antibodies to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, Bradac said. The presence of these antibodies in the rabbits' blood made it appear that the vaccine was spurring the animals to build defenses against HIV.

Researchers at other labs had become suspicious when they were unable to duplicate the results claimed by Iowa State. (Tipped by JMG reader Birdie)

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Posted in: AIDS,Iowa,medicine,science

HIV Returns In Two "Cured" Patients

A very disappointing setback.

Two men whom Boston researchers reported in July had been cleared of HIV after receiving bone marrow transplants have had the virus return, the lead researcher announced Thursday. The patients, both of whom had been living with HIV for years, had each received bone marrow transplants several years ago to treat the blood cancer lymphoma. The treatment appeared to have made HIV retreat to undetectable levels in their blood. At the time of the announcement in July, one man had been off antiretroviral drugs for 15 weeks and the other for seven weeks. But the virus returned in one patient in August and the other patient in November, said Dr. Timothy Heinrich, infectious diseases associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, the Boston Globe first reported. Both have since resumed taking HIV medication.

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Posted in: HIV/AIDS,medicine,science

FDA Approves New Hep C Drug

Via press release from the CDC:

Today, the FDA approved an important new treatment for chronic hepatitis C. The drug, sofosbuvir, is a major advance in the treatment of a disease that affects approximately 3 million Americans and causes more than 15,000 deaths in the U.S. annually. Today marks a landmark advance in the treatment of hepatitis C, opening up new opportunities to stop the spread of this virus and the ravages of this disease. However, new therapies only work if people receive treatment – the potential of these and other treatment advances hinges entirely on our ability to get more people screened and into care. Right now, most Americans with hepatitis C don’t access treatment because they have no idea they’re infected.

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Posted in: CDC,FDA,Hep C,medicine,science