• Question: Could you create a living creature using the cells you make?

    Asked by ambert2003 to Elizabeth on 13 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Elizabeth Ratcliffe

      Elizabeth Ratcliffe answered on 13 Mar 2014:


      Hi ambert2003, great question, no I couldn’t make a living creature from the cells I grow, I wouldn’t want to and I’m not allowed to – it would be against the law. We have to have ethical approval for working with the cells we work with, these are strict rules and regulations we work within for safety reasons. The stem cells I work with can grow and divide to create all types of cells in the human body, that’s what makes them special as they can start the repair and replacement processes in the body. But in the lab we have to feed them and keep them happy and control which cells they turn into. We could direct the cells in one flask to become skin cells and the cells in another flask to become eye cells. It is also possible to put different cells into a small scaffold frame to make tissue or a tiny blood vessel. For example there have been a few cases around the world where patients have had their wind pipe replaced with a scaffold that has stem cells in it.
      In Synthetic Biology, scientists have create synthetic bacteria, a single synthetic cell completely controlled by man-made genetic instructions. I think it cost $40 million to make and it was ground-breaking work. There is a big project at the moment to create synthetic yeast (a bit like the yeast used in bread making) as yeast can be used to make new vaccines and antibiotics and lots of other things…the idea is that a synthetic yeast can be man-made to work much better than normal yeast so we can make new vaccines and antibiotics more quickly and for less money.
      So watch this space…

Comments