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Boardgames go digital

An increasing number of game players are tapping the tablet rather than rolling the dice.

  •  Tissue factory

    Artificial skin grafts from the lab

    Tissue factory

    The "Tissue Factory" at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB) in Stuttgart. In an automated process, collagen is mixed with cells in order to manufacture human skin. Besides using tissue engineering techniques to make skin, biologists and engineers are also working on the cultivation of liver and gut tissue.

  •  Artificial skin

    Artificial skin grafts from the lab

    Artificial skin

    Until now, the skin factory has been producing up to 5,000 patches of two-layered skin per month. The goal in the near future is to produce fully functioning human skin, with all three layers – the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue.

  •  Skin cancer

    Artificial skin grafts from the lab

    Skin cancer

    Researchers in Stuttgart are currently working on breeding skin tumors in a bid to shed light on the effectiveness of medications and therapies that treat them. A further step could see the development of bone, liver and kidney tissues. The scientists hope that such test systems could give some insight into how metastases spread.

  •  Cartilage cell transplants

    Artificial skin grafts from the lab

    Cartilage cell transplants

    While most tissue engineering processes are still a long way from clinical application, cartilage cell transplants have been acknowledged as a standard treatment method in Germany. For years they have been used for the treatment of cartilage defects in knee, ankle and hip joints.

  •  Bio-artificial heart valve

    Artificial skin grafts from the lab

    Bio-artificial heart valve

    Heart valves have been grown in Germany for more than a decade, and some have been already been transplanted. Heart surgeons have transplanted pig heart valves, but their disadvantage is that they do not grow with the body. Now they are using valves made of tissue grown from human cells, which can grow with the body and are durable.

  •  To the heart of the matter

    Artificial skin grafts from the lab

    To the heart of the matter

    Doctors in Hanover are researching the growth of heart muscle tissue. Stem cells that are made from genetically reprogrammed tissue cells harvested from individual patients are used to create new heart muscle tissue.

  •  Goodbye animal testing

    Artificial skin grafts from the lab

    Goodbye animal testing

    The manufacture of tissue models as an alternative to animal testing is becoming increasingly important. The hope is that because the tissue models are made from human cells and are closer to the respective human body parts on which tests are conducted, they can provide more exact results than animal experiments.