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Regrowing amputated limbs closer to medical reality + Biological relativity

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C C Offline
Regrowing amputated limbs is getting closer to medical reality
https://leaps.org/regeneration/regenerat...-new-field

EXCERPTS: . . . Cato Laurencin, who is a University of Connecticut professor ... teamed up with experts in tissue bioengineering and regenerative medicine ... Laurencin and his colleagues ... made a bold commitment to regenerate an entire limb within 15 years – by the year 2030. Limb regeneration in humans has been a medical and scientific fascination for decades, with little to show for the effort. However, Laurencin believes that if we are to reach the next level of 21st century medical advances, this puzzle must be solved.

An estimated 185,000 people undergo upper or lower limb amputation every year. Despite the significant advances in electromechanical prosthetics, these individuals still lack the ability to perform complex functions such as sensation for tactile input, normal gait and movement feedback. As far as Laurencin is concerned, the only clinical answer that makes sense is to regenerate a whole functional limb.

Laurencin feels other regeneration efforts were hampered by their siloed research methods with chemists, surgeons, engineers all working separately. Success, he argues, requires a paradigm shift to a trans-disciplinary approach that brings together cutting-edge technologies from disparate fields such as biology, material sciences, physical, chemical and engineering sciences.

As the only surgeon ever inducted into the academies of Science, Medicine and Innovation, Laurencin is uniquely suited for the challenge. He is regarded as the founder of Regenerative Engineering, defined as the convergence of advanced materials sciences, stem cell sciences, physics, developmental biology and clinical translation for the regeneration of complex tissues and organ systems.

But none of this is achievable without early clinician participation across scientific fields to develop new technologies and a deeper understanding of how to harness the body's innate regenerative capabilities. "When I perform a surgical procedure or something is torn or needs to be repaired, I count on the body being involved in regenerating tissue," he says. "So, understanding how the body works to regenerate itself and harnessing that ability is an important factor for the regeneration process."

[...] Humans are born with regenerative abilities--two-year-olds have regrown fingertips--but lose that ability with age. Salamanders are the only vertebrates that can regenerate lost body parts as adults; axolotl, the rare Mexican salamander, can grow extra limbs.

The axolotl is important as a model organism because it is a four-footed vertebrate with a similar body plan to humans. Mapping the axolotl genome in 2018 enhanced scientists' genetic understanding of their evolution, development, and regeneration. Being easy to breed in captivity allowed the HEAL team to closely study these amphibians and discover a new cell type they believe may shed light on how to mimic the process in humans.

[...] Laurencin and his team have individually engineered and made every single tissue in the lower limb, including bone, cartilage, ligament, skin, nerve, blood vessels. Regenerating joints and joint tissue is the next big mile marker, which Laurencin sees as essential to regenerating a limb that functions and performs in the way he envisions.

[...] The clock is ticking on the timeline Laurencin set for himself. Nine years might seem like forever if you're doing time but it might appear fleeting when you're trying to create something that's never been done before. But Laurencin isn't worried. He's convinced time is on his side... (MORE - details)


The gene illusion
https://iai.tv/articles/the-gene-illusio...d=2020%20h

EXCERPTS: . . . The idea that DNA copies itself in the way in which a crystal grows originates with the quantum mechanics pioneer Erwin Schrödinger in his 1942 book What is Life? It seemed so plausible that the idea was developed further when Watson and Crick discovered the Double Helix. This led to Crick’s famous Central Dogma of molecular biology, and to the idea of one-way causation from genes to proteins to cells, tissues, organs, all the way up to the whole body.

[...] But, in the body, DNA does not exist as a crystal. It cannot, therefore, rely on providing a three-dimensional template into which other DNA molecules can automatically insert themselves. ... DNA cannot function outside a living cell. The replicator, DNA, is therefore not separate from the vehicle, the complete cell because that proof-correcting process only occurs in living cells.

The distinction between DNA as a replicator and the cell as its vehicle is therefore also an illusion. They necessarily live or die together. That disposes of Selfish Gene theory in evolution since genes are not “sealed off from the outside world”. The same process by which those proof-correcting proteins can cut and paste DNA is precisely what enables genes to be influenced by the organism and its environment. That fact is also illustrated by two more illusions: the Weismann Barrier and the Central Dogma.

[...] We must therefore move away from the Central Dogma and its one-way causation, what Dawkins refers to as “ancient replicators manipulating it by remote control”.

Living systems are organised at many nesting levels, from molecules to cells to organs and the whole organism. Each level influences the processes occurring at molecular levels. In my book Dance to the Tune of Life: Biological Relativity I give the full details of this multi-level causation view, which is precisely the concept of Biological Relativity.

You experience multi-level causation in everyday life. If you train hard as an athlete you will increase the RNAs that enable your muscles to grow more protein and so become stronger. Many other molecular changes will follow in the wake of your lifestyle decision.

That fact fundamentally changes our view of ourselves and our place in nature since it restores to us and other organisms the sense of control and agency. The levels of causation mesh with each other, so that higher-level processes, such as our mental states and lifestyles, necessarily influence the processes at a molecular level that control our genes... (MORE - missing details)

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