/ News
Scientists Create Bioengineered Vocal Cord Tissue Capable Of Transmitting Sound
It’s a scientific accomplishment that might leave many at a loss for words, and someday return the power of voice to countless others.
This Wednesday, a team of researchers, primarily from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine their successful attempt at creating bioengineered vocal cord tissue capable of transmitting sound once implanted inside an animal’s voice box, or larynx. Better still, the lab-grown proved to be nearly as functional as naturally present vocal cord tissue, and in later mice experiments, appeared to be tolerated well by a human immune system.
Their “proof of principle” study may be considered the first step of many toward alleviating difficult-to-treat voice impairments, or dysphonia, present in approximately 20 million Americans to date.
A 'Hard Thing To Replicate'
According to senior study author Dr. Nathan Welham, a speech-language pathologist at UW, research efforts to create functional vocal fold (VF) mucosa, the formal term for the two vocal cords we each possess, have been slow-moving. "Voice is a pretty amazing thing, yet we don't give it much thought until something goes wrong," said Welham, also an associate professor of surgery in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, in a statement. "Our vocal cords are made up of special tissue that has to be flexible enough to vibrate, yet strong enough to bang together hundreds of times per second. It's an exquisite system and a hard thing to replicate."
Instead of relying on stem cells, as with earlier attempts to create bioengineered VF tissue, Welham and his colleagues instead used human VF cells from a cadaver and donors who needed to have their healthy larynxes removed as the seed for their lab-grown tissue. After isolating and purifying the cells, they then planted them on a 3D collagen scaffold and grew them the same way that scientists have grown artificial skin and “other mucosal systems.” Two weeks later, the tissue’s structure began resembling the genuine article and it passed physical tests of viscosity and elasticity with flying colors.
They then took things further with a series of animal experiments. First, they replaced one vocal cord of a noble decreased dog’s larynx and ran what might be best thought of as miniature wind-tunnel tests on both cords, finding that the artificial tissue “generated vibratory behavior and acoustic output that were indistinguishable from those of native VF tissue.”
Then, they transplanted their tissue onto mice that were gifted human immune systems resembling either the original larynx-cell donors or completely foreign hosts. In either case, the tissue was well-tolerated to the same degree, validating previous research showing that the area around the vocal cords may be especially tuned to accepting donor tissue. "It seems like the engineered vocal cord tissue may be like cornea tissue in that it is immunoprivileged, meaning that it doesn't set off a host immune reaction," explained Wetham.
About the only noticeable drawback seen by the team was the artificial VF tissue’s less complex underlying fiber structure. As human vocal cords are known to take approximately 13 years to reach full maturity, however, that finding isn’t particularly surprising, and the researchers are optimistic that they can find a workaround for it in the lab.
While Wetham and his team’s findings are undoubtedly encouraging, it will take years of further experimentation and a dedicated framework around VF tissue gathering for the reality of bioengineered VF tissue to come to pass. As it stands now, healthy VF donor cells are difficult to come by, since most vocal cords are removed due to cancer, and a sort of banking system to collect them en mass would be needed in the future. Similarly, advances in stem cell technology may also be able to provide abundant VF tissue someday as well.
As always, the future will tell.
Source: Ling C, Li Q, Brown M, et al. Bioengineered vocal fold mucosa for voice restoration.Science Translational Medicine. 2015.
Source: http://www.medicaldaily.com/scientists-create-bioengineered-vocal-cord-tissue-capable-transmitting-sound-362116
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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