This machine is weaving 48 strands of human connective tissue together into a tube.
Growing fresh blood vessels is a much fantasized-about goal of biomedical engineers. It sounds vaguely vampiric, but the idea is to replace the veins in the arms of dialysis patients
, which are a mess from being breached several times a week to be hooked up to a blood-cleaning machine. From there, engineers hope to provide off-the-shelf replacements for heart valves and such. Most approaches involve getting human cells---either donor cells or cells from the patient---to manufacture rubbery connective tissue
made of proteins, from which the cells are stripped away to avoid an immune reaction in patients. Some companies start with flat sheets of this tissue and roll them into tubes, while others have the cells make the stuff around a tubular mold
. One company, though, is trying out a technique that made us look ...
