Welcome back and here we are again with Harvard Apparatus. You might ask what else Harvard Apparatus has for technology, and here we are with your answer. They use electro spinning and infrared cameras to assist researchers.

Electro spinning is a relatively new technology where charged liquid goes through an electromagnetic field. Once it travels through the field the polymer within the liquid threads itself on the drum and creates a scaffold of homogeneous thickness. The voltage in the electromagnetic field causes the polymer to become strand-like and intertwine with itself on the drum. The cells adhere to the thin proliferation on the drum and create the tissue necessary. In order to produce different morphologies and orientations of tissues, the parameters of both the polymer and the process can be adjusted. However, mapping can be difficult since the polymers do not intertwine the same way every time.

Harvard Apparatus also uses infrared cameras to monitor the function of organs. In the past there was no easy way to detect how a donor organ is functioning without using dyes or stains. Dyes and stains, however effective, negatively affect the organ and may make them unusable to be transplanted. The picture from the infrared camera uses the water content and the temperature of the cells in the organ to see how they’re functioning. This technology can be used as well to identify the exact spot a heart attack is occurring so a surgeon can inject stem cells after the attack to help the body repair the damaged cardiac tissue. It can also be used to diagnose and predict the appearance of a burn over a month later after only three hours so that treatment can be administered significantly sooner.

Using these two technologies, Harvard Apparatus is enabling researchers to make large advancements in the world of medicine and specifically regenerative medicine. Stick around as next time we will investigate how researchers used these and the technologies mentioned in our last blog to regenerate full organs, like the trachea to give people a whole new life. What do you think of this new technology? Let us know @TRA360!

As promised we’re back with more on the apparatus of Harvard Apparatus. In our last blog we talked about the mechanical syringe pump and the Ex Vivo Profusion System, but now we’re looking into the bioreactors used by researchers to advance their abilities to create synthetic organs in the future.

Once they discovered that their technologies could be used to regenerate organs, Harvard Apparatus began research and development into the ways to improve the bioreactors for regenerative medicine. They started to develop bioreactors in all different sizes and shapes for each organ. For example, there have been all different shapes of tracheas needed for transplantation and Harvard Apparatus has been able to create bioreactors that can accommodate individual trachea.

The InBreath™ Bioreactor goes inside of an incubator to maintain a sterile field in an environment required to help to grow the organ. Also, the InBreath™ Bioreactor enables the stem cells that are growing to be stimulated in a manner similar to that in the body. Inside of the bioreactor, the cells are exposed to both a liquid environment that resembles the mucous that the trachea is exposed to and the air environment that as a windpipe the trachea would experience. This helps the stem cells to grow and differentiate into the correct type of cells by stimulating them.

But how do you know when an organ is ready? Harvard Apparatus thought about this too. There is no alternative to the experience of a world leading surgeon. They supplement this with the ability to measure certain metrics of the physiology of organs. The surgeon can manipulate the trachea and monitor the metrics and decide when the organ is ready to be transplanted.

But that’s all for now, check back next time for more about the technologies brought to us by Harvard Apparatus. Let us know what you think so far @TRA360!