tissue

Vascular systems -- i.e., networks of blood vessels -- are like highways for the delivery of nutrients and removal of waste; without them, cells die quickly. The ability to bioengineer new vasculature is a crucial step toward creating new replacement organs such as livers or kidneys from a patient's own cells.

Bioengineers are already working on creating and assembling single layers of cells that have direct access to nutrients and oxygen -- a process known as "bioprinting." But creating a full-fledged array of new vessels remains a major hurdle. Fluidic pressure coursing through these tiny systems … Read more

Today, pathologists and researchers must cut super-thin slices of tissue samples to view them on a microscope -- a labor-intensive process that renders 3D images created from hundreds of 2D sections prohibitively expensive.

Not to mention tedious to construct. Imagine if a single scene in Halo was presented as a series of 2D images one must perfectly align before getting the lay of, say, a single battleground.

Now, computer scientists and medical researchers at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom say they've devised a novel workaround in the form of a digital scanning system that produces 3D views of tissue samples … Read more

"Star Wars" in 3D is still out in theaters, but why not make some real 3D Star Wars of your own this weekend?

For barely $10 worth of supplies, you can fight off the winter blues with everybody's favorite mercenary Wookiee, Chewbacca. In the second installment of our crafts series courtesy of Bonnie Burton's "The Star Wars Craft Book," we've turned him into a tissue box cover. Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwrrn! … Read more

Within five years, soldiers who suffer facial burns could have their faces regrown by wearing intelligent biomechanical masks, according to research out of the University of Texas at Arlington.

Eileen Moss of the university's Automation & Robotics Research Institute is collaborating with the U.S. Army and Northwestern University to build a prototype Biomask equipped with tiny sensors and actuators.

Under conventional treatment, damaged tissue is removed and replaced with grafts. The procedure, however, can sometimes produce speech problems, deformities, and scarring; it can require multiple operations.

The Biomask consists of a rigid, face-shaped shell and covering flexible polymer layers that contain arrays of electrical and mechanical components. … Read more

It may be benign, but researchers have turned the virus M13 into a sophisticated engineering tool that could lead to the manufacturing of materials with biomedical properties that can be fine-tuned, such as bone, skin, and corneas.

"We took our inspiration from nature," said Seung-Wuk Lee, an associate professor of bioengineering at UC Berkeley who describes the team's self-templating material assembly process in the journal Nature. "Nature has a unique ability to create functional materials from very basic building blocks. We found a way to mimic [this]."

Lee points to the protein collagen as the … Read more

Hang on. You're coughing and sneezing your lungs out, and you want ME to come inside Ground Zero to pass you a tissue? No thanks. Four little letters and numbers: H1N1.

Fortunately, we have Rakuten's Running Tissue Box to come to the rescue. Using a standard remote-control chassis, you put a tissue box on top and drive the absorbent paper to its destination at a maximum of 26 feet away. Think of it as a bomb disposal robot that enters dangerous contaminated territory where no man should tread.

The only thing that makes us scratch our heads is … Read more

If automation breeds laziness, this is a prime example. It's one thing for Japanese scientists to develop robots that can help their country's aging society for such reasons as health and safety, but is a tissue-dispensing bot really necessary?

InterRobot, maker of the ever-smiling "Mospeng-kun," also rents out its creation to the tune of 100,000 yen for five days (about $835). That seems pretty steep for an automated tissue box, but Mospeng might have a more sinister--and therefore more valuable--use as well: for "gathering information about the people it encounters on the job," … Read more