★Awarded a star by Kirkus Reviews for "remarkable merit"
Stem Cells and Biodefense
Oil transformed armed conflict in the first half of the twentieth century and electronics brought unprecedented precision to warfare and security in the second half of the century. Now biology is being yoked to the task of national self-defense.
U.S. defense agencies are funding research on genes, proteins, cells, tissues and organs like the brain to enhance the healing of wounds and battlefield performance. Bioengineers are harnessing the power of cells including stem cells to develop an artificial immune system or bioreactor that could rapidly assess vaccines without needing to use laboratory animals. These vaccines would be designed to counter natural and engineered bioweapons.
What would it mean to capture the power of the human immune system, a system that took evolution millennia to create?
The Stem Cell Dilemma
The MIMIC® system originally developed by VaxDesign, today Sanofi Pasteur VaxDesign Corp., enables researchers to test the immune response to an experimental vaccine or drug developed to fight natural or engineered viruses or other pathogens. Each well in MIMIC's 96-well plastic plate represents a human immune system complete with B cells, T cells, and dendritic cells, the progeny of blood-forming stem cells. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded the development of the system in the wake of 9/11. Photo by Todd Lemoine courtesy of Sanofi Pasteur VaxDesign Corporation.
