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Stem Cell Video Analysis

Decent Essays

Should we redesign humans? That is the title of a group of twelve Ted talk videos talking about everything that has to do with regenerating a part of the human body. I chose to watch three videos which focused on joint-replacement, personalized medicine using stem cells and re-growing new bone and cartilage. Each of the videos speakers made a very compelling sell for their specific cause. If someone in your family had severe arthritis would you want them to be relieved of their pain at all costs? What about if science could create a specific cure for the exact type of cancer you or a loved one had would you care how it was designed? Or if you had a bone defect and science could regrow your bone using your own stem cells. Would you be opposed …show more content…

Nina Tandon is a Tissue Engineering Researcher who has studied and worked at many higher learning institutions including MIT and Columbia. Tandon starts off her speech explaining that while everyone is similar in some ways, no two humans react to drugs and medicines the same way. The reason she starts off her speech with this statement is she is trying to develop the method of creating any type of tissue or organ from the process of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Using this method scientists are able to create any type of tissue and create cures for many types of diseases. Tandon states that using this method they can inject a bio-tissue with a disease from a specific patient and work to cure that specific strain of the disease. Tandon explains that using this type of stem cell research will greatly reduce animal testing and human clinical …show more content…

Molly Stevens is the lead researcher at Imperial College London, her research team is responsible for designing bioactive materials for regenerative medicine and biosensing. Stevens begins her speech by talking about how throughout the history of the world humans have been using different materials to replace or repair parts of the body. She gave examples of a scientist in World War 2 discovering that plastic from the cockpit window of a fighter plane was getting into the pilot's eyes helping them to see better, as well as, the Aztecs using rocks as filaments for teeth. Stevens shows a slide that says every year 1 million people have some sort of bone defect that requires bone grafting. The standard way of bone grafting was taking a piece of bone from the hip and placing it in the bone that needs to be repaired. This method works well but the pain is severe and can last as long as 2 years. Instead of using this method they have discovered a way to grow bone using your own stem cells. This method is called In Vivo Bioreactor; this method can not only re-grow massive amounts of bone it is also starting to be researched on how it can be used to help with heart tissue and other

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