Heart in a Box: a do it yourself project?

Biomedical Technology has come a long way to where it is today and Canadian contributions continue to influence this field on an international level. One Canadian in particular has stumbled upon an interesting concept, one that covers the sensitive topic of the heart and heart transplants. Heart transplants continue to grow in demand and if demand is not met patients with heart related diseases will die. One interesting fact that raises awareness about this demand is the consent form that is signed when you get a driver's license. It basically asks you if you would like to donate your organs in case of death due to a motor vehicle accident.


The Human Heart - Our Body's Engine
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and Canada; not hard to believe seeing as we are one of the world's top fast food consumers. Without this organ we cannot live but some people suffer heart failures (sometimes even through genetics) and need new hearts. these hearts come from donors of the same blood type as the patient. Its not an easy process seeing as you only have one heart and the chances you'll get one that's your blood type are slim to none. and the heart is an extremely complex organ that cannot be imitated by mechanical prosthetics, well at least not yet.


HEART IN A BOX!!! no way...
Dr. Michael Sefton is a professor at the University of Toronto (director of the institute of bio materials and biomedical engineering). He has discovered a process that can, in time, save the lives of people waiting on a heart transplant from a donor that may never come along. His process consists of three basic steps: 1. place cells along scaffolding, 2. place in a bio reactor that provides nutrients and oxygen 3. wait for cell division to complete and fill any open spaces. This process may seem impractical but has been successfully employed to create separate parts of the heart; but not quite the entire organ just yet. Dr. Sefton's international movement is called L.I.F.E (living implants from engineering) and envisions that they will be able to build a working human heart in 10 years; good luck to them!



Not to be Confused With "HEART IN A BOX." Americans stole the spot light!
Meanwhile in Massachusetts (actually since around 2006-7) there has been a technology developed under the same name. This technology serves a different purpose though, it houses a natural human heart for transportation or short-term storage until it can be successfully transplanted to a donor. This exciting new technology was developed in the USA and is made by TransMedics Inc. Instead of putting the heart on ice, which only gives it a storage time of six hours, this device puts the heart under normal conditions and keeps it pumping with some of the donor's blood. The machine can successfully sustain the heart for up to 24 hours before it is transplanted to the waiting recipient.



Sources:

1. Michael Sefton at UofT
2.Heart in a box (american devolopment of TransMedics Inc.)
3.Heart in a box and the L.I.F.E movement: the scientist
4.Body Building: Tissue Engineered Organs
5.Hearts From Scratch


Blogs I Commented On:

Daniel's Blog

Kendra's Blog

Ecologically Sound V.S Economically Necessary

Artificial selection, also known as selective breeding, is used in a lot of places, one place in particular is on the farm. Artificial selection is used to selectively breed animals for optimum food production, genetically manipulate plants in order to create the food we eat, and is used to economically benefit the food production process. Artificial selection is also used in breeding dogs in order to combine desirable traits through cross breeding different types of dogs. A popular example comes from the wolf to dog chain.


Industrial Agriculture

There are two types of agricultural methods that will be discussed throughout this blog. The first is Industrial Agriculture. Industrial agriculture is the method in which we grow most of our food including eggs, dairy, meat, fruits, and vegetables. In this method artificial selection is used to optimize the food production process so that it is economically efficient and brings us food at more abundance and less cost. There are many disadvantages to industrial agriculture, these include: Environmental and social costs, interferes with natural biodiversity, increased health risks from pesticides, depleted fisheries, and increased animal waste. one example of a crop that is created using this process is corn. Through selective breeding teosinte's (a type of grass) few fruit cases are transformed into many exposed kernels in corn. problems that arise from the processes are patents that are created to protect a certain type of product that was selectively bread for by an individual or group. All these process make the farm seem like a factory in which chemicals, fuel, and pesticides are imputed and chickens, corn, beef, etc is the output. The main goal is to increase yield at a high efficiency.

This process definitely has its disadvantages more specifically from selective breeding. a study shows that by selectively breeding dogs we have altered the structure and the position of the dog brain in short-skulled canines. This is just one example of the many specific disadvantages from the selective breeding process.


Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable agriculture is a growing movement that has started about 2 decades ago. This movement boasts that this type of farming helps the environment by not over farming to deplete top soil, it does not contaminate groundwater, keeps family farms alive, and does not harm the social integrity of rural communities. This type of farming will bring jobs back to the rural areas, provide fresher produce, and let nature take control of what's hers. Sustainable agriculture supposters argue three main facts: Air, Energy, and Soil. Air is affected becasue many modern agricultural processes include release of chemicals into the environment and the heavy use of fossil fuels. Industrial agriculture uses a lot of non-renewable energy sources such as petrollium; this directly effects the environment and our planet. Lastly soil is affected through soil errosion if it is not taken care of properly.




Now think which is really more profitable? Personally it is hard to make the right choice in this situation because of the impractical yield of sustainable farming, so agricultural farming will have to do until we come up with cleaner methods.


Sources

1. Industrial Agriculture: features and policies



2. What is Sustainable Agriculture?



3. Industrial V.S Sustainable Agriculture
   


4. Berkeley Evolution Library: Artificial Selection
   


5. Has selective breeding reconstructed canine minds?

Blogs I Commented On

1. Anna's Blog


2. Cris' Blog