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American scientists have developed a device with a microchip that can reprogram human skin cells into blood vessels and nerve cells.
What’s going on
- A team of scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine (USA) has developed a new microchip device that can reprogram human skin cells into blood vessels and nerve cells without laboratory intervention.
- The researchers’ method is to turn the human body into a bioreactor for cells using tissue nanotransfection technology. The device consists of a silicon nanochip with an array of microneedles printed with tiny channels. The chip contains a small container that stores molecules for gene editing.
- Under the influence of a focused electrical charge, these genes penetrate to the desired depth in living tissue and change the cells, turning this place into a small bioreactor that reprograms the cells. They can help repair damage both locally and in other parts of the body, including the brain.
- Tissue nanotransfection does not require any laboratory procedures and can be performed at the point of care. In addition, the procedure is non-invasive: local contact of the nanochip hardware with the skin for less than a second is sufficient to deliver information to the skin cells.
- It is noted that this technology has been developed for more than five years, and now the team has focused on going beyond prototyping.
What does it mean
The technology of transforming specialized tissue cells into non-specialized stem cells is certainly one of the key achievements of modern medicine. It solves the problem of finding donors – according to experts, only three out of ten patients manage to find a donor for transplantation, but many of them face the problem of tissue rejection.
However, until recently, the use of this method involved a number of complex laboratory procedures that could have negative consequences, such as the formation of cancer cells. Putting this technology into a simple device, a microchip, is a real breakthrough for medicine. This will reduce risks, as well as make the technology more accessible – according to the researchers, the creation of the device will take 5-6 days.