"Regenerative Medicine: from Bench to Bedside, Spring 2010"

Abstract:: "Regenerative medicine involves the repair and regeneration of tissues for therapeutic purposes, such as replacing bone marrow in leukemia, cartilage in osteoarthritis or cells of the heart after a heart attack. In this course, we will explore basic mechanisms of how cells differentiate into specific tissues in response to a variety of biologic signaling molecules. We will discuss the use of such factors for in vitro tissue production. We will also study the cellular mechanisms involved in the cloning of animals and how Scottish researchers produced the sheep Dolly using the nucleus of a mammary gland cell from an adult sheep. We will read papers describing organ production, such as the in vitro formation of beating heart cells. We will also consider the molecular bases of cellular tissue remodeling to correct these changes. We will discuss how studies of the developmental, cellular and molecular biology of regeneration have led to the discovery of new drugs. This course is one of many Advanced Undergraduate Seminars offered by the Biology Department at MIT. These seminars are tailored for students with an interest in using primary research literature to discuss and learn about current biological research in a highly interactive setting. Many instructors of the Advanced Undergraduate Seminars are postdoctoral scientists with a strong interest in teaching."

No Strings Attached

The Superultramodern Biology

Abstract:: The purpose of this article is to bring out ‘The Superultramodern Biology’, in brief. The superultramodern biology is essentially the application of the NSTP (Non – Spatial Thinking Process) theory, a key component of superultramodern science / philosophy, in biological science. The main product of the application is the idea of ‘Non – Spatial Natural Selection (NSNS)’, which is the ‘NSTP Theoretical Evolution’. NSNS is a result of the NSTP theoretical solution of problems like ‘the problem of cell development and differentiation’, ‘the problem of newly minted protein folding’, etc. The first part of this article states the problems as well as the solutions, and the second part discusses the ‘Non – Spatial Natural Selection (NSNS)’, and compares it with the ‘Spatial Natural Selection (SNS)’.