Recycle Today's LCD TVs Into Tomorrow's Human Tissue-Regeneration Systems
A component of your LCD screen could have medicinal uses Researchers at the University of York's Department of Chemistry propose that instead of just tossing old LCD screens, we recycle them for medical purposes. Polyvinyl-alcohol (PVA), a component used as a coating on the glass surfaces of all LCD panels, can also (as it happens) help in the process of regrowing tissue and regenerating body parts. It could even be used to help target specific parts of the body for drug delivery in pills. Because PVA elicits little response from human immune systems, it can, once it's been recovered from the screens, be used in scaffolding to help rebuild tissue, and can also be put into pills or dressings. Recovering the PVA for medical purposes is also relatively simple, requiring only microwave-heated water and an ethanol wash. It was estimated that over one million metric tons...
Read the whole article on PopSci
More from PopSci
Related
- Medical use for waste television screensMon, 13 Jul 2009, 10:22:06 EDT
- New advancements in the use of adult, embryonic stem cells for tissue regenerationThu, 6 Nov 2008, 17:56:33 EST
- Structures from the human immune system's oldest branch shed light on a range of diseasesWed, 17 Jun 2009, 11:45:25 EDT
- International research team seeks to unravel flatworm regenerationTue, 21 Jul 2009, 10:36:01 EDT
- Gene therapy appears safe to regenerate gum tissueTue, 7 Apr 2009, 14:36:03 EDT