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Bioinformatics Summer Internship 2024 With Hands-On-Training + Project / Dissertation - 30 Days, 3 Months & 6 Months Duration

Ischemia is a condition when there is inadequate flow of blood either due to a build-up or due to blockage in the blood vessel leading to an organ. It can be fatal if not immediately acknowledged, leading to grave conditions like a heart attack or a stroke. In these cases, the generic treatment method is Therapeutic angiogenesis; where new blood vessels are formed in order to facilitate easier blood flow. But in practice, when growth factors are injected to help the blood vessels to originate, many a times it so happens that a disorganized array of tortuous networks of vessel spring up and eventually form a hairball like structure which opposes the whole intension behind this treatment being provided.

To overcome this fix, scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Stanford University have designed blood vessels using 3-D printing technology. This study involved the synthesis of two sets of patches of blood vessels- of which one had cells that were pre-organized into a specific architecture, and the other was simply injected without prior organization in its construction, more or less randomly. When the results were observed, it was found that the pre-organized patch showed remarkable improvement in the existing Ischemia

condition, while the unorganized patch gradually formed a hairball like structure as previously noted during angiogenesis and further restricted the flow.

“This preclinical work presents a novel approach to guide enhanced blood flow to specific areas of the body,” said Dr. Ozaki, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “The augmented blood nourishment provides valuable oxygen to heal and functionally preserve vital organs such as the heart and limbs.”

“One of the questions we were trying to answer is whether or not architecture of the implant mattered, and this showed us that yes, it does, which is why our unique approach using a 3D printer was important. The pre-organized architecture of the patch helped to guide the formation of new blood vessels that seemed to deliver sufficient blood to the downstream tissue. While it wasn’t a full recovery, we observed functional recovery of function in the ischemic tissue.” said Prof.Chen, a member of the team.

Despite holding great promise, this study is still at an early stage of research. In the future, the scientists plan to construct different structures of patches to try and understand the study’s various modes and also to study which type could be the most effective in this mission.

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