MIT developing living drug factories

This piece describes how MIT engineers have taken liver cells, converted them to insulin producing cells and then wrapping them in an elastomer that allows those cells to do their work in regulating blood glucose while being protected from immune cell destruction.  “The technology involves encapsulating the cells in a protective shell made from a silicon-based elastomer, combined with a porous membrane. These pores are large enough that nutrients, oxygen and insulin can move freely through the membrane, but small enough to keep out immune cells that seek to attack the cell.”  A similar approach with embryonic kidney cells allowed them to produce erythropoietin without sustaining an immune attack.     MORE

Image Credit:   MIT