Hearts built to order may be around the corner

A dead heart beats again. Thanks to the effort of scientists at the University of Minnesota. To rebuild and reanimate the organ, which is harvested from a rat, scientists first stripped the old heart cells away with a detergent typically found in shampoos. That left behind a collagen matrix- The protein fibers that hold groups of cells togeather and help give organs thier overall shape- which they then reseed with heart cells from a newboarn rat. They attached the organ to electrodes and waited. Then it happened: The heart started to beat regularly." We wer all running around like crazy, scared that it would [ just stop and ] never beat again. "Says team member Harold Ott. A surgical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The reanimation tehnique is now being tested on pig hearts, which are much closer in structure to human hearts. Organs from built-to-order collagen matrices would help treat the five million Americans who suffer from heart failure and the some 2,600 patients currently waiting for transplant donors. - By Day Greenberg.

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Head and Shoulders, Not just for dandruff anymore.

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Your Burger on Biotech:

Scientists serve up leaner beef, tastier cheese and healthier Ketchup-

If the Biotech industry has it'sway, ordering a hamburger might soon sound something like this:" One charbroiled cloned beef patty, with genetically modified cheese, Lab grown bacon and vitamin-C fortified lettuce, on a protien-spiked bun. "The burger of the future is delicious, nutritious and contains more engineering than a Stealth Bomber. With the Food and Drug administration ruling in January that meat and milk from cloned cows, pigs, goats and thier offspring is safe to eat, the only thing keeping the superburger off your dinner plate is time. It will be a few years yet before cloned meat is in store shelves. Cloning the perfect, ( and tastiest,) cow can cost upward of $15,000. Which makes clones themselves to expensive to eat. So, we'll have to wait till they spawn enough offspring ( the old fashioned way) to feed the masses. meanwhile, researchers are busy formulating all the fixings. Take a look at what science is doing for the burger, from the Bun to the Beef and everything in between - Rena Marie Pacella

Recipe For Burger 2.0

Vitamin Bun-

After isolating a gene in wild wheat that controls protein, zinc and iron content, scientists at the University of California at Davis spliced the gene into domestic wheat, boosting nutrient content by 12%.

Cruelty-free Bacon-
Scientists in the Netherlands have grown minced pork in a dish by adding water, glucose and amino acids to pig stem cells. Expect artificial ground meat by 2012, and bacon within a decade.

Better Cheddar-

Food engineers are boosting cheddar flavor by adding a bacterial gene that produces an enzyme that eliminates the bitter taste created during ripening

Leaner Beef-

Several compamies are clowning the county's most prized cows to produce leaner, tastier cuts of meat. Ranchers will start breeding the clones this spring, and in 5 years, the offspring will be ready to grill.

Healthier Ketchup-
The ethanol boom is driving up the price of corn syrop, os Heinz is breeding a tomatoe that is 10% sweeter than those grown today. Look for naturally sweeter ketchup by 2010

High-C Lettuce-

By splicing rat genes into lettuce, Virginia Tech scientists figured out how to turn on the vegtable's latent vitamin-C producing abilities ( rats are natural C- makers. ) Since rodent- altered lettuce is somewhat unappetizing, the team used the data to identify plant DNA that can do the same thing.

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And there you have it my friends, look what is happening in the future.

 

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