DNA Programmed Assembly of Cells (DPAC) tagged posts

This image shows the shapes made of living tissue made by the researchers. By patterning mechanically active mouse or human cells to thin layers of extracellular fibers, the researchers could create bowls, coils, and ripple shapes. Credit: Alex Hughes

Many of the complex folded shapes that form mammalian tissues can be recreated with very simple instructions, UC San Francisco bioengineers report December 28 in the journal Developmental Cell. By patterning mechanically active mouse or human cells to thin layers of extracellular matrix, ECM fibers, the researchers could create bowls, coils, and ripples out of living tissue. The cells collaborated mechanically through a web of these fibers to fold themselves up in predictable ways, mimicking natural developmental processes.

“Development is st...

Reconstituting epithelial microtissues with programmed size, shape, composition, spatial heterogeneity and embedding ECM Credit: http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/vaop/ncurrent/images/nmeth.3553-F3.jpg

A technique to build organoids of human tissues using a process that turns human cells into a biological equivalent of LEGO bricks has been developed. These mini-tissues in a dish can be used to study how particular structural features of tissue affect normal growth or go awry in cancer. They could be used for therapeutic drug screening and to help teach researchers how to grow whole human organs.

Called DNA Programmed Assembly of Cells (DPAC), thousands of custom-designed organoids, eg models of human mammary glands containing several hundred cells each, can be built in a matter of hours...