“Max: You know you inspired me, doing what
you did, going off on your own like that...”
A young aristocratic heiress, Penelope Wilhern is born with
a secret family curse that can only be broken when she is loved by ‘one of her
own kind.’ Her family decides to fake Penelope's death when she was just a
child and hides her away in their large majestic home. When Penelope reaches of
age, she is subjected to meeting a string of blue-bloods with the hope of
marrying her off to break her curse. It is when two men each with a unique
grudge against the family where the story begins and Max enters her life, as he
is hired to take a photo of the mysterious Penelope.
Max finds himself drawn to Penelope and finds himself
disappearing from all party's included, lives as to not expose or disappoint
her. This event overwhelms Penelope with feeling betrayed and lost. She runs
away from home out into the world where she finds adventure despite of her
curse. If only Penelope and her family had access to ‘Tissue
Nano-Transfection’, the latest breakthrough that treats injured or ageing
tissue, they could have had the solution to their secret family curse. 
INTRODUCTION:
A tiny device that sits on the skin and uses an electric
field to reprogram cells could possibly treat injured or aging skin or tissues.
This breakthrough is being called ‘tissue nano-transfection’. An intense yet
focused electric field is applied across the device. This electric field allows
the device to deliver genes to the skin cells beneath it, turning the
underlying cells into different types of cells. [A]
It instantly delivers new DNA or RNA into the living cells
to change their function to heal organs or tissues. A team of researchers from
Ohio State University- Wexner Medical Center- developed this device that can
switch cell function to rescue failing body functions with one touch. [B]
In other words, it injects genetic code into skin cells,
turning those skin cells into other types of cells required for treating
diseased conditions. When repairing damaged tissue, this new technique offers
the possibility of turning a patients very own tissue into a “bio-reactor” to
produce cells to needed either repair nearby tissues, or for use at another
site. [A]
Chandan Sen (from Ohio State University) co-led this study
and the results have shown that skin is a fertile land where
scientists/researchers can grow the very elements needed of any organ which is
aging or damaged. However, it is important to note that scientists have been
able to re-program cells into other cell types before. In 2012, John Gurdon and
Shinya Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize for this very discovery and is currently
being researched in many fields such as Parkinson’s disease. [A]
“Penelope: There are three hundred and twenty-six
first editions in that room. Of those, three hundred are worth over fifty
thousand, a dozen or so are worth over twenty-five thousand and I'm afraid
there's only one that's valued under a hundred.
Max:
Only one, huh?
Penelope: A little novel, written by a little
nobody that never amounted to anything.
Max: You don't say, under a hundred?
Penelope: I'm afraid so, and I'm afraid that
means that it's time for-
[interrupted]
Max:
But your favorite just the same.”
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Any general Biology course teaches us that one can change
the fate of a cell by incorporating new genes into the cell. Progress in Stem
cell research have shown that a skin cells such as neurons, vascular cell, or a
stem cell can in fact become any other cell when putting genes into them. But,
this new study has given researchers and scientists alike a new approach to re-programming
cells through skipping an intermediary step. This intermediary step is where
cells are turned into what are known as ‘pluripotent stem cells’. So instead of
turning skin cells directly into functional cells of different types. In the
human body, this process is a single step. [A]
In addition, this new approach does not rely on applying an
electric field across a large area of the cell or using viruses to deliver the
necessary genes. This study was the first to reprogram cells without the use of
any viral vectors. (The published study can be found on Nature Nanotechnology
journal. The publication describes how the team developed the new technique and
novel genes that allowed them to reprogram skin cells of the animals in their
study.) [A]
"Penelope: Used to? You don't do that anymore?
What are you doing instead?
Max:
[after a pause] Beating you at chess.
Penelope: I warned you I'd kill her.
Max:
Well that's great, because, you know what? As soon as my guys hear what you've
done...
Penelope: The game will be over, your Queen'll
be dead.
Max:
My King's still pretty... active. You know?
Penelope: Once the Queen is dead, the King is
useless.
Max:
What's that about?
Penelope: I don't know. Maybe he's too depressed
to fight. He really loved her, you know.”
Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT), that can generate any cell
type of interest for treatment within the patient's own body. This technology
may be used to repair injured tissue or restore function of aging tissue,
including organs, blood vessels and nerve cells. [B]
TNT technology has two major components: First is a
nanotechnology-based chip designed to deliver cargo to adult cells in the live
body. Second is the design of specific biological cargo for cell conversion.
This cargo, when delivered using the chip, converts an adult cell from one type
to another. TNT doesn't require any laboratory-based procedures and may be
implemented at the point of care. The procedure is also non-invasive. The cargo
is delivered by zapping the device with a small electrical charge that's barely
felt by the patient. [B]
RESEARCH:
In a new study published in Nature Nanotechnology by the
first author Daniel Gallego-Perez of Ohio State demonstrated that the technique
worked with up to 98 percent efficiently. In a series of lab tests, researchers
applied the chip to the injured legs of mice that vascular scans showed
had little to no blood flow. “We reprogrammed their skin cells to become
vascular cells,” Sen said. “Within a week we began noticing the
transformation.” [C]
In laboratory tests, this process was able to heal the badly
injured legs of mice in just three weeks with a single touch of this chip. The
technology works by converting normal skin cells into vascular cells, which
helped heal the wounds. [B] Researchers studied mice and pigs in these
experiments. In the study, researchers were able to reprogram skin cells to
become vascular cells in badly injured legs that lacked blood flow. [A] The chip, loaded with specific genetic code or certain
proteins, is placed on the skin, and a small electrical current creates
channels in the tissue. The DNA or RNA is injected into those channels where it
takes root and begins to reprogram the cells. [C]
The team of researchers used the technique on mice with legs
that had had their arteries cut, preventing blood flow through the limb. The
device was then put on the skin of the mice, and an electric field applied to
trigger changes in the cells’ membrane, allowing the genes to enter the cells
below. As a result, the team found that they were able to convert skin cells
directly into vascular cells -with the effect extending deeper into the limb,
in effect building a new network of blood vessels. [A]
By the second week, active blood vessels had formed, and by
the third week, the legs of the mice were saved—with no other form of
treatment. [C] Within a week, active blood vessels appeared in the injured leg,
and by the second week, the leg was saved. In lab tests, this technology was
also shown to reprogram skin cells in the live body into nerve cells that were
injected into brain-injured mice to help them recover from stroke. [B]
"This is difficult to imagine, but it is achievable,
successfully working about 98 percent of the time. With this technology, we can
convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch. This process
only takes less than a second and is non-invasive, and then you're off. The
chip does not stay with you, and the reprogramming of the cell starts. Our technology
keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance, so immune suppression is
not necessary," said Sen, who also is executive director of Ohio
State's Comprehensive Wound Center. [B]
“Jessica
Wilhern: Honey, just think about what you're doing. This is the
moment we have worked so hard for.
Penelope: I
said go away!
Jessica
Wilhern: Sweetheart, please! Please, we are one yes away from a whole
new life, a whole new you!
Penelope: But I
don't want a whole new me, mother!
Jessica
Wilhern: Sweetheart please, please.
Penelope:
I
like myself the way I am!”
RESULTS:
“What’s even more exciting is that it not only works on
the skin, but on any type of tissue,” Sen said. In fact, researchers were able
to grow brain cells on the skin surface of a mouse, harvest them, then inject
them into the mouse’s injured brain. Just a few weeks after having a stroke,
brain function in the mouse was restored, and it was healed. Because the
technique uses a patient’s own cells and does not rely on medication,
researchers expect it to be approved for human trials within a year. [C]
After seven days, new vessels appeared and two weeks
later, blood flow was observed that reached the whole leg. They also used the
device to convert skin cells into nerve cells on mice. These cells were then
injected into the brains of mice who had experienced a stroke which aided their
recovery. These observations revealed that skin cells can be converted into
elements of any organ. The process takes less than a second and is
non-invasive. This technology avoids all issues with rejection. [A]
There are standard surgical techniques that deal with
blockages of blood flow to limbs. Greater refinement of this technology is
needed although the application of existing techniques that has potential. This
new technique is unlikely to be used on areas other than skin, since the need
for an electric current and the device near to the tissue means using it on
internal organs would require an invasive procedure. [A]
“Penelope:
[telling her class her story] And we lived happily ever after - well, happily
ever after so far at least.
Child
1:
I don't get it. What does it mean?
Penelope: Well,
you tell me what you think it means.
Child
2:
Rich people stink!
Child
3:
It's always the mother's fault.
Child
4:
It's not the power of the curse - it's the power you give the curse.”
CONCLUSION:
"The concept is very simple," Lee said. "As a
matter of fact, we were even surprised how it worked so well. In my lab, we
have ongoing research trying to understand the mechanism and do even better.
So, this is the beginning, more to come." [B] In other words, massive
developments are needed for this technique to be used for anything else other
than skin. The team of researchers hope to continue to perfect this process and
technique as they set out to begin clinical trials on humans next year. [A]
Links:
*Please note! These images are not mine. They were found on
various tumblr, pinterest, google image sites! If any are yours please let me
know so that I can give you credit for them! Also the people in the images have
no relation to the diseases, illnesses, or cancers I write about. Thanks so
much & enjoy~
*Quotes by: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472160/quotes
*Screen caps by: http://kissthemgoodbye.net/movie/thumbnails.php?album=55
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