Art in a bioreactor

American artist will grow a hand from stem cells

Oleg Lischuk, N+1

American artist Amy Karle has started growing a hand from stem cells on a 3D-printed frame, writes Ars Technica (An artist is growing a hand out of human stem cells).

In collaboration with biologist Chris Venter from the Pier 9 laboratory and materials scientist John Vericella from Autodesk, Karl printed a "skeleton" of a brush on a 3D printer, corresponding in size to her own hand. A hydrogel made of polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA), which is used as a matrix in tissue engineering, was chosen as the printing material. The printed frame has the structure of a spongy microlattice resembling bone tissue.

Arm frame in a bioreactor

According to Karl, at first she wanted to use her own stem cells or mouse tumor cells for growing, but changed her mind for safety reasons. Therefore, she opted for human mesenchymal stem cells available for order on the Internet.

Currently, the artist cultivates cells on a nutrient medium in order to then grow them on a brush frame in a bioreactor. At the end of the project, she is going to post instructions on growing a hand on the Instructables resource.

Karl said that initially she intended to grow an exoskeleton for herself, but after creating 3D models of bones in the Pier 9 workshop, she decided to stop creating a brush. She also printed several artistic models of vertebrae and a dress in the form of an exoskeleton.

In one of her previous projects, Karl connected herself to the historic analog computer Sandin Image Processor to generate sounds and images from her own bioelectric potentials.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  26.05.2016