Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > Mimicking the body's natural processes

Abstract:
An EU-funded research team at Norway's University of Bergen is using nanotechnology to find a way of mimicking the body's natural processes, including inducing cells to create new blood vessels for biomedically engineered tissues. The University of Bergen is involved in several major EU-funded projects, such as VascuBone ('Construction kit for tailor-made vascularized bone implants'), which has 15 partners and EUR 12 million of research funding under the Cooperation Programme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The project's remit is to improve the formation of blood vessels during the regeneration of new bone tissue.

Mimicking the body's natural processes

EU | Posted on April 14th, 2010

Biomedical and nanotechnology researchers around the world are working hard to induce cells to create new tissues. But all tissues need a blood supply and that is what the University of Bergen research team is focusing on.

The team is looking at how nanotechnology can mimic the natural processes of the body. To do so, they are investigating how cells interact with each other and with synthetic biomaterials, and what the process of regeneration involves. The aim is to understand and then copy the cells' natural mechanisms for the regeneration and engineering of new tissues.

'An ideal implant,' explained research team head Professor James Lorens from the University of Bergen, 'should mimic the body's natural tissues and send proliferation and differentiation signals to the cells. The nanoscale topology is vital for controlling how this occurs.

'A primary challenge with any tissue formation, however, is securing the blood supply to the new tissue. In other words, making sure that blood vessels are formed within the tissue.'

Professor Lorens' team is working on the blood supply aspect of tissue engineering and has already succeeded in placing three blood vessel components (epithelial and smooth muscle cells as well as matrix proteins) into an implant where cells are connected to new tissue. The experiment was successful in both Petri dishes and small implants in animals.

'We have demonstrated vessel formation in synthetic implants in our lab animals,' said Professor Lorens. 'In the next phase, we'll examine more specific tissue types such as bone tissue, for example.'

The team is also looking at ways of using nanotechnology for direct cell communication. To determine how nanostructured surfaces affect blood vessel formation, the researchers placed cells on a nanostructured biomaterial, the surface of which had been treated with certain molecules that send specific signals to cells.

'We need a better understanding of how cells perceive nanofabricated surfaces and how this affects communication between cells,' said Professor Lorens. 'By reproducing the signals that cells encounter from their immediate surroundings inside the body's various tissues, we can control how the cells proliferate and differentiate.'

Part of the research group's work is to establish how these processes work in cancerous tissues. Professor Lorens commented, 'With tissue engineering we can reproduce a tumour in order to study how it interacts with blood vessels. If we succeed in cutting the blood supply to the tumour, it will starve and die. Tumour tissue engineering can also help us to understand how cancer cells spread via blood circulation.'

The University of Bergen team is also involved in an EU collaboration to find new medications that can block the blood supply to cancerous tissues, in effect starving the cancer by depriving it of blood.

For more information, please visit:

VascuBone project: www.vascubone.fraunhofer.eu/index.html

University of Bergen: www.uib.no/en/

Research Council of Norway: www.forskningsradet.no/

####

For more information, please click here

Copyright © CORDIS

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related News Press

News and information

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

How surface roughness influences the adhesion of soft materials: Research team discovers universal mechanism that leads to adhesion hysteresis in soft materials March 8th, 2024

Two-dimensional bimetallic selenium-containing metal-organic frameworks and their calcinated derivatives as electrocatalysts for overall water splitting March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes March 8th, 2024

Possible Futures

Two-dimensional bimetallic selenium-containing metal-organic frameworks and their calcinated derivatives as electrocatalysts for overall water splitting March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Academic/Education

Rice University launches Rice Synthetic Biology Institute to improve lives January 12th, 2024

Multi-institution, $4.6 million NSF grant to fund nanotechnology training September 9th, 2022

National Space Society Helps Fund Expanding Frontier’s Brownsville Summer Entrepreneur Academy: National Space Society and Club for the Future to Support Youth Development Program in South Texas June 24th, 2022

How a physicist aims to reduce the noise in quantum computing: NAU assistant professor Ryan Behunin received an NSF CAREER grant to study how to reduce the noise produced in the process of quantum computing, which will make it better and more practical April 1st, 2022

Nanomedicine

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Announcements

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024

Nanobiotechnology

High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024

Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024

Curcumin nanoemulsion is tested for treatment of intestinal inflammation: A formulation developed by Brazilian researchers proved effective in tests involving mice March 8th, 2024

The Access to Advanced Health Institute receives up to $12.7 million to develop novel nanoalum adjuvant formulation for better protection against tuberculosis and pandemic influenza March 8th, 2024

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project