'Micromasonry' Turns Cells into Lego Blocks For Building Artificial Organs
MIT researchers have made assembling artificial organs look like child's play by devising a novel approach to tissue engineering that encapsulates living cells in polymer cubes and assembles them like Lego blocks. The method, which requires no highly specialized equipment, could overcome major obstacles in artificial organ manufacture, making it possible to assemble complex 3-D structures out of living tissue cells. Dubbed "micromasonry," the process solves one of the biggest problems facing tissue engineers: Getting cells grown in a lab to assemble into three-dimensional shapes. To break down tissue into single-cell building blocks, researchers have to dissolve the extracellular mortar that normally binds them together. But once that glue is removed, it's quite difficult to get cells to reassemble into the complex structures that make up our natural tissues. Related ArticlesHarnessing Lightning Bolts to Build Artificial OrgansVideo: Artificial Organs Made With A Printer, Grown From Scratch If I Ate Lab-Grown Human Tissue...