)
I saw a truly amazing show on PBS tonight: NOVA scienceNOW, episode Can We Live Forever?.
The most promising technology they showed is a technique where they can take donor organs and literally wash away all the cells, by pumping a soap commonly found in shampoo, sodium lauryl sulfate, into the blood vessels, ultimately leaving behind only the protein scaffolding of the organ (which includes all the structure and details including all the fine pathways for the blood vessels). They can then seed the scaffolding with stem cells from the patient who's to receive the organ, and you end up with a perfectly functional organ that the body won't reject, so the powerful immunosuppressive drugs required when transplanting a donor organ full of foreign cells aren't necessary.
They've successfully "grown" working animal hearts and lungs using this technique, and have successfully transplanted a human trachea this way. They expect transplantation of the more complex organs in humans is only years away.
On the episode page, you can watch the full thing, or the individual segments. Definitely watch "Replacing Body Parts", which I discuss above. I also found "Can We Slow Aging?" and "Human Hibernation" fascinating.
The "Can My Car Live Forever" segment was cute but not necessarily worth your
time unless you're a classic car maintenance enthusiast. The "Profile: Jason
Leigh" one was just as lame as other "live forever via a computer avatar"
stories I've seen and read — the technology just isn't close to being
there yet. The only innovation I saw in this one was using motion capture to
replicate body language. (When it comes to computer avatars, I prefer Jennifer Jason Leigh's
work. )
But again, definitely check out the "Replacing Body Parts" segment —
truly awesome stuff. Watching that made me feel like I went into the wrong
field — biology is so much more interesting than computers.
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Dan Harkless
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