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Human Tissue Inc.
The Challenges of Human Tissue Engineering ?
From November 29, 2004, till June 2005 the Interdepartmental Project Human Tissue Inc. is running. The main collaborating departments in this project are: Architecture (B), Biomedical Engineering (BMT) and Industrial Design (ID). Students from these faculties will cooperate to design extra corporal structures inspired on (properties of) living tissues and using concepts and ideas from the new technology of tissue engineering. The principal focus is on ‘coverings’ based on skin, e.g. a clove (with properties) of living skin or moving architectures covered with skin-like structures.
Project description BMT part 1 [unit 3.C]
BMT students will concentrate on the (im)possibilities of tissue engineering when creating such structures at different scales. Tissue engineering, being a multidisciplinary approach combining elements from Technical and Life Sciences, focuses on the production of living tissues by seeding living cells on (temporary) deformable carrier materials (scaffolds) and culturing them under prescribed conditions. Originally, tissue engineering is applied to design tissue substitutes for the repair or replacement of tissues and organs in the human body. For this purpose strict prerequisites can be given, such as the fact that the tissue must be cultured under standardized, a-septic conditions, and the fact that cells and scaffold should not evoke immune reactions in the human body. Also the cell source in of utmost importance. When applied for other purposes, such as for consumer products, building, or art, different prerequisites and guidelines may be applicable. In addition, the introduction of such products into the community may be controversial, evoking discussions regarding ethical and social aspects of using tissue engineering for the production of these items.
As a collaborator in this project you should discuss and create guidelines and boundary conditions for translating proposed designs into realistic products that can be created via tissue engineering protocols. These may include the use of lasting or temporary scaffolds, the cell source, culture and growth conditions outside the human body, maintenance of the cultured tissue outside the body, guidelines for mechanical and failure properties of the desired and created (skin) tissues, remodeling of the created tissues with time, etc. For the translation of the concepts to larger scale constructions and mathematical models of architectural and industrial designs, students of Mathematics (Wsk) will joint the project, too.
In addition, ethical and social aspects of introducing the desired product into the community should be discussed, together with students of Technology Management (TM). Will the product be accepted by the community; on what grounds; and how will it affect our daily live and vision on life? Can it be compared to the introduction of other new technologies in the past, etc?
For the first set of aspects the students will be coached by ir. Rolf Pullens; with respect to the latter aspects the students will be guided by drs. Mechteld-Hanna Derksen. Both aspects should be combined a set of guidelines and prescriptions and precautions that is composed in close collaboration with student from the joining disciplines.
Project description BMT part 2 [unit 3.D]
proposed by Mechteld-Hanna Derksen
Background:
You are part of a by the government appointed commission which has to organise a public debate on Tissue Engineering for non-medical applications. The results will be reported to ‘Tweede Kamer’ in one year and be used for the formulation of policy concerning the commercial use of human and animal tissue. The background to the question by the government is the recent erection of a new company called Human Tissue Inc. However, newspapers have also reported on the possible establishment of Duck, Rabbit and Bear Inc. as well as Dolphin Inc. The assignment is similar to the one given to the commission on Food and Genes. (see report) This implies increasing public awareness and knowledge on the commercial use of tissue engineering, allowing possibilities for debate and opinion formation and reporting on the results. The focus of the debate should be on questions and arguments with respect the technology in social relations. The commission has a year for developing the material, the debate and writing the report. In the first round of discussion within the commission some important themes for the debate have been listed: racism, ownership of body material, respect for life, barbarism, body boundaries and abuse.
Assignment:
To create a vivid non-trivial debate it is important that some interesting cases are developed. This means that applications are to be visualised, described and placed in to social context. You are a subcommittee that has as assignment to develop the description and visualisation of one / two of these applications within the topic of coverage. The list of themes is important for this development and has to be extended. The applications should each invite for discussion about at least three of the listed/added themes, but also give room for the introduction of new themes by the public. Moreover, to get an idea of where the debate will go you will test these descriptions by adding a questionnaire and sending these to a relevant group of people. In the report to present to the commission in 5 weeks the development and choice of the cases has to be argued for, the cases are presented and the results of the pre-debate are presented and discussed. It should be noted that the priority lies in the development of cases as these are to be used for the national debate.
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