The Emerging Field of Human Neural Organoids, Transplants, and Chimeras

The Emerging Field of Human Neural Organoids, Transplants, and Chimeras

Author: National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine

Publisher:

Published: 2022-01-08

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 9780309303361

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The United States military is arguably the most intensely technological, complex enterprise in existence. When compared to the gross domestic products of other countries, the Department of Defense (DoD) budget ranks above all but about 20 nations. If viewed as a company, it would be the largest globally with the most employees. Major investments in weapons systems using advanced technologies provide an advantage over competing systems. Each weapon, platform, vehicle, and person in an operating force is a node in one or more advanced networks that provide the ability to rapidly form a coherent force from a large number of broadly distributed elements. DoD's ability to create and operate forces of this nature demands a competent understanding by its workforce of the composition, acquisition, and employment of its technology-enabled forces. Review of Specialized Degree-Granting Graduate Programs of the Department of Defense in STEM and Management focuses on the graduate science, technology, engineering, mathematics and management (STEM+M) education issues of the Air Force, Navy, and Marines. This report assesses the cost, benefits, and organizational placement of DoD institutions that grant degrees in STEM+M and evaluates alternative ways - for example, civilian institutions and distance learning - to ensure adequate numbers and high-quality education outcomes for DoD personnel."--Publisher's description.


Bioethics and the Future of Stem Cell Research

Bioethics and the Future of Stem Cell Research

Author: Insoo Hyun

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-06-24

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 0521768691

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This book provides a sophisticated yet accessible account of emerging trends in stem cell research and their accompanying ethical issues.


Tumor Organoids

Tumor Organoids

Author: Shay Soker

Publisher: Humana Press

Published: 2017-10-20

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 3319605119

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Cancer cell biology research in general, and anti-cancer drug development specifically, still relies on standard cell culture techniques that place the cells in an unnatural environment. As a consequence, growing tumor cells in plastic dishes places a selective pressure that substantially alters their original molecular and phenotypic properties.The emerging field of regenerative medicine has developed bioengineered tissue platforms that can better mimic the structure and cellular heterogeneity of in vivo tissue, and are suitable for tumor bioengineering research. Microengineering technologies have resulted in advanced methods for creating and culturing 3-D human tissue. By encapsulating the respective cell type or combining several cell types to form tissues, these model organs can be viable for longer periods of time and are cultured to develop functional properties similar to native tissues. This approach recapitulates the dynamic role of cell–cell, cell–ECM, and mechanical interactions inside the tumor. Further incorporation of cells representative of the tumor stroma, such as endothelial cells (EC) and tumor fibroblasts, can mimic the in vivo tumor microenvironment. Collectively, bioengineered tumors create an important resource for the in vitro study of tumor growth in 3D including tumor biomechanics and the effects of anti-cancer drugs on 3D tumor tissue. These technologies have the potential to overcome current limitations to genetic and histological tumor classification and development of personalized therapies.


Chimera Research

Chimera Research

Author: Insoo Hyun

Publisher: Humana

Published: 2020-08-14

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 9781493995264

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This volume addresses challenging new questions surrounding stem cell-based chimera research. This book is organized into three parts: Part One provides readers with a summary of different human donor cell types. The chapters in this section discuss ways to evaluate new types of pluripotent stem cells; the derivation of naïve and primed pluripotent stem cells from mouse preimplantation embryos; and the ethical and regulatory complexities of informed consent for the procurement of somatic cells. Part Two discusses methods for generating chimeras. The chapters here look at chick models and human-chick organizer grafts; generating human-pig interspecies chimeras; and techniques for transplanting mouse neural stem cells into a mouse disease model for stroke. Part Three concludes the book with a look at ongoing ethical controversies and new scientific directions. Chapters in this part cover the ethics of crossing the xenobarrier; animal welfare; experimentation with spermatogonial stem cells; and cautious approaches to human-monkey chimera studies to further understand complex human brain disorders. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and thorough, Chimera Research: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for scientists interesting in using chimeras as a research tool while also taking into consideration their complex ethical scopes.


The Philosophy of Animal Minds

The Philosophy of Animal Minds

Author: Robert W. Lurz

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-09-03

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1139481029

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This volume is a collection of fourteen essays by leading philosophers on issues concerning the nature, existence, and our knowledge of animal minds. The nature of animal minds has been a topic of interest to philosophers since the origins of philosophy, and recent years have seen significant philosophical engagement with the subject. However, there is no volume that represents the current state of play in this important and growing field. The purpose of this volume is to highlight the state of the debate. The issues which are covered include whether and to what degree animals think in a language or in iconic structures, possess concepts, are conscious, self-aware, metacognize, attribute states of mind to others, and have emotions, as well as issues pertaining to our knowledge of and the scientific standards for attributing mental states to animals.


Characterizing Consciousness: From Cognition to the Clinic?

Characterizing Consciousness: From Cognition to the Clinic?

Author: Stanislas Dehaene

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2011-05-27

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 3642180159

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Fifteen of the foremost scientists in this field presented testable theoretical models of consciousness and discussed how our understanding of the role that consciousness plays in our cognitive processes is being refined with some surprising results.


Human Neural Stem Cells

Human Neural Stem Cells

Author: Leonora Buzanska

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-09-12

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 3319934856

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This book summarizes early pioneering achievements in the field of human neural stem cell (hNSC) research and combines them with the latest advances in stem cell technology, including reprogramming and gene editing. The powerful potential of hNSC to generate and repair the developing and adult CNS has been confirmed by numerous experimental in vitro and in vivo studies. The book presents methods for hNSC derivation and discusses the mechanisms underlying NSC in vitro fate decisions and their in vivo therapeutic mode of action. The long-standing dogma that the human central nervous system (CNS) lacks the ability to regenerate was refuted at the end of the 20th century, when evidence of the presence of neurogenic zones in the adult human brain was found. These neurogenic zones are home to human neural stem cells (hNSCs), which are capable of self-renewing and differentiating into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. NSCs isolated from human CNS have a number of clinical advantages, especially the innate potential to differentiate into functional neural cells. Nevertheless, their full clinical exploitation has been hindered by limited access to the tissue and low expansion potential. The search for an alternative to CNS sources of autologous, therapeutically competent hNSCs was the driving force for the many studies proving the in vitro plasticity of different somatic stem cells to generate NSCs and their functional progeny. Now the era of induced pluripotent stem cells has opened entirely new opportunities to achieve research and therapeutic goals with the aid of hNSCs.


Organoids and Mini-Organs

Organoids and Mini-Organs

Author: Jamie A. Davies

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2018-03-09

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 012812637X

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Organs and Mini-Organs combines contributions from leading practitioners who work under the editorial control of an acclaimed researcher who also served for eight years as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Organogenesis, the first journal on this topic. The book begins with an introduction, but then delves into chapters that present advice on how to make organoids for many systems. In addition, case studies that illustrate the uses of organioids are presented, along with discussions on future directions and specific problems that need to be solved. - Collects the best protocols of organoid cultures from diverse tissues - Covers a wide range of organs - Includes troubleshooting cases for common, but specific problems for each culture conditions - Provides an entire section on the application of organoids


Principles of Animal Research Ethics

Principles of Animal Research Ethics

Author: Tom L. Beauchamp

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 0190939125

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This volume presents a framework of general principles for animal research ethics together with an analysis of the principles' meaning and moral requirements. Tom L. Beauchamp and David DeGrazia's comprehensive framework addresses ethical requirements pertaining to societal benefit (the most important consideration in justifying the harming of animals in research) and features a thorough, ethically defensible program of animal welfare. The book also features commentaries on the framework of principles by eminent figures in animal research ethics from an array of relevant disciplines: veterinary medicine, biomedical research, biology, zoology, comparative psychology, primatology, law, and bioethics.


The International after 150 Years

The International after 150 Years

Author: George Comninel

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1317487966

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The International Workingmen’s Association was the prototype of all organizations of the Labour movement and the 150th anniversary of its birth (1864-2014) offers an important opportunity to rediscover its history and learn from its legacy. The International helped workers to grasp that the emancipation of labour could not be won in a single country but was a global objective. It also spread an awareness in their ranks that they had to achieve the goal themselves, through their own capacity for organization, rather than by delegating it to some other force; and that it was essential to overcome the capitalist system itself, since improvements within it, though necessary to pursue, would not eliminate exploitation and social injustice. This book reconsider the main issues broached or advanced by the International – such as labor rights, critiques of capitalism and the search for international solidarity – in light of present-day concerns. With the recent crisis of capitalism, that has sharpened more than before the division between capital and labour, the political legacy of the organization founded in London in 1864 has regained profound relevance, and its lessons are today more timely than ever. This book was published as a special issue of Socialism and Democracy.