OSU medical cites major breakthrough in healing technology "Can heal organs with a single touch"

I have a very rare form of cancer and the preminent center for research and treatment in the US (and some would argue the world) is the Davis Cancer center at OSU.  I've been there many times and have always been treated amazingly and as I write this I am 8 years cancer-free and even though the cells are in my lymph nodes they are remaining dormant and god & Davis cancer center willing-I'll die with the desease, not from it.

Some things are bigger than football guys.  This one is for me.

So glad we can keep things in perspective around here. Yeesh.

Fortunately, that problem is also typically self-correcting.

to do what it normally does to grow and organ.  Just like in the womb some cells form the heart, some form the liver, etc.  It all starts from one cell.

My guess is that the DNA knows when to stop.

I get a little giddy when my previous life as a biomedical researcher comes in handy on MGoBlog. Also, anything with wide receiver routes: theory and practice. But here, the former. I looked at the abstract of the published paper the article references and have a decent idea of how this works.

So, one useful thing is that what they're talking about here is a method for transfection of target cells with genetic material, which means adding exogenous genetic material (usually DNA, often in circular bits called "plasmids") through a cell's membrane where the protein(s) it encodes can be generated by the cell machinery without actually being incorporated into the chromosomes of the target cell. The DNA sequence can also act as a "promoter" of endogenous (host) genes to turn on beneficial proteins that are lacking in an injured or disease state.

When you actually change the target cell's genetic sequence by inserting directly into it's DNA (incorporating into the chromosome of the target), that's called cell transformation. In this case, you have some concerns about inserting into the wrong place and, e.g., deactivating a "tumor suppressor" (anti-cancer) gene or alternatively activating an "oncogene" (cancer promoting). Technology for targeting exactly where to insert the gene of interest has become much more sophisticated recently as some of you may have read (CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology which has revived the "designer baby" debate again, for example, because it makes transformation so much easier it seems to enable Huxley's Brave New World for realz this time).

But back to this story, transfection typically doesn't cause the permanent genetic change of a cell because as a cell divides, it tends to dilute the exogenous DNA that was added as further generations of the "daughter" cells emerge and the parent cells die off. Contrast with transformation, which tends to be permanent because the added gene replicates along with the transformed cell.

So the tl;dr version of the above is that while lab methods for similar treatments of cells with DNA segments have been around for decades, miniaturizing the process and making it essentially a little patchlike topical device to help deliver therapeutic genes through the skin right to the affected area (such as burns or other necrotic skin lesions) could take those lab techniques and make them far easier to apply in a clinical setting if they can make it consistent enough to pass the FDA's significant approval process.

That was so fun.

your brain would need the healing if you put yourself through that kind of abuse...