Researchers develop 'breakthrough device' to heal cells

Researchers have developed a new technology that can reprogram skin cells to repair injured tissue.

A team at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State’s College of Engineering developed the Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT) nanochip that they say can heal damaged and ageing tissue, organs, blood vessels and nerve cells.

The team published their study in the Nature Nanotechnology journal which showed how they were able to heal a badly injured for a pig. The researchers reprogrammed the animal’s skin cells to become vascular cells to help heal the leg, which lacked blow flow. The team also used the nanochip to reprogram skin cells into nerve cells to help brain-injured mice recover from stroke.

Dr Chandan Sen, who co-led the study with professor L. James Lee, said: “By using our novel nanochip technology, injured or compromised organs can be replaced. We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining.

“This is difficult to imagine, but it is achievable, successfully working about 98 percent of the time. With this technology, we can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch.

“This process only takes less than a second and is non-invasive, and then you're off. The chip does not stay with you, and the reprogramming of the cell starts. Our technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance, so immune suppression is not necessary.”

The nanochip works by delivering cargo through a small electrical charge which the team state is barely felt by the patient. When the cargo is delivered, adult cells are then converted from one type to another.

The researchers are planning to start clinical trials next year on humans.