Patterns of Life

Pretty patterns bring beauty to life. And one day, the perfect pattern might just save your life too. Tissue engineering is the process of growing new material to replace the damaged or diseased original in the body. The first step is to lay out a foundation of cells in just the right pattern to steer the growth. A new tool has been developed to give precision control over both this layout and the cell-gathering process that must come first. It can selectively pluck particular tiny cell types from a stream of material, and layer them onto any flat surface, in any design, such as the red and green stained cells in the example pictured. This process could potentially grab cancer cells circulating in a patient’s blood to test them on platforms with a variety of treatment drugs, or help lay the foundations for new tissue growth in the lab.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from Mohammad Qasaimeh, Engineering Division, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Lab on a Chip, October 2019