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Researchers grew a single chunk of chicken in the laboratory that was about 7 centimetres long and 2 centimetres thick.Credit: Shoji Takeuchi, The University of Tokyo
Winner, winner, lab-grown dinner!
Researchers have created what they think is the largest piece of meat grown in the laboratory yet. The chunk — a nugget-sized piece of chicken that measures 7 centimetres long, 4 centimetres wide and 2.25 centimetres thick — reached its size thanks to a designer ‘circulatory system’ that delivers nutrients and oxygen into the growing tissue. The meat hasn’t yet been made with food-grade materials, so it isn’t ready for consumers’ plates. But it is “an extraordinary engineering achievement”, says Mark Post, chief science officer of the food technology company Mosa Meat.
Reference: Trends in Biotechnology paper
Rebel planet goes against the grain
Physicists have spotted a planet in a highly unusual polar orbit around a pair of star-like bodies. The planet orbits two brown dwarves — ‘failed’ stars that never gain enough mass to spark nuclear fusion — at an almost 90o angle to the plane on which the stars are orbiting each other, crossing over both the north and south poles of the duo as it passes. Only 16 planets have ever been found orbiting two objects, and all so far circle their host pair on the same plane.
Reference: Science Advances paper
US global health cuts risk millions of lives
Roughly 25 million people could die in the next 15 years without the United States making its current annual spending on global health. Models that estimate the impact of withdrawing such aid show that cancelling the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in the 55 countries it supports would cause 15 million extra deaths from AIDS by 2040. Rollbacks of services including support for newborn care, diagnosing childhood illness, birth attendance and emergency obstetric care could lead to an extra 8 million child deaths by 2040 across 25 countries — taking child-death rates roughly back to where they were in 2010.
Reference: SSRN preprint (not peer reviewed)
Source: Stover/Preprints with The Lancet
A stem-cell special
News
Early stem-cell trials hint at bright future
The results of two early-stage trials show that injecting stem-cell-derived neurons into the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease is safe. They also show hints of benefit: the transplanted cells can replace the dopamine-producing cells that die off in people with the currently incurable disease, and survive long enough to produce the crucial hormone. The trials transplanted a relatively small number of cells into 19 individuals, which isn’t enough to prove that the treatment is effective, says stem-cell biologist Malin Parmar. Nonetheless, the results are “a big leap in the field”, she says.
Reference: Nature paper 1 & paper 2
The two trials used different types of stem cells. One used cells derived from early embryos, and the other used an induced pluripotent stem-cell line — adult cells reprogrammed back into an embryo-like state. Both cell lines differentiated into dopamine-responsive neurons before being grafted into a brain region called the putamen. The putamen forms part of the larger striatum, which is connected to the substantia nigra, where the loss of dopamine-sensitive neurons is most severe in Parkinson’s. (Nature News & Views | 7 min read)
Feature
Japan’s big bet on stem cells
With hints of the success from early trials using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells — adult cells reprogrammed into an embryonic-like state — to treat Parkinson’s disease, and other conditions such as spinal-cord injury, Japan’s big investment into such therapies might be about to pay off. The country is home to nearly one-third of iPS-cell clinical trials in progress worldwide, and could be the first nation to approve a treatment thanks to a fast-track process for regenerative medicine. But positive results from large trials showing a clear clinical benefit are yet to materialize — and, crucially, the public still need to be convinced of the treatments’ safety.
Editorial
‘Be patient with stem-cell therapies’
The results of stem-cell trials are exciting, but such therapies shouldn’t be rushed to the clinic, cautions a Nature editorial. Researchers must be allowed to take as much time as is necessary to complete safety and efficacy tests. For example, two of the four therapies granted conditional approval through Japan’s fast-track system between 2015 and 2021 failed to meet the efficacy requirements for a full approval and were withdrawn from market last year. “Regenerative medicine is an exciting and promising science,” says the editorial. “Regulators around the world must not put that promise at risk by rushing the final stage of the process.”
Features & opinion
Futures: Within dead branches
The search for a lost love ultimately leads home in the latest short story for Nature’s Futures series.
Five best science books this week
Andrew Robinson’s pick of the top five science books to read this week includes the disturbing story of one physician’s battle to ban leaded petrol and a dinosaur enthusiast’s account of how animals and plant life have shaped each other through the ages.
