Biosynthetic Muscle Fibers: The Future LIFESUIT Blog by Monty K Reed
"So what is your vision for the future as far as the LIFESUIT is concerned?" I was asked by a friend. We had been talking about the Prosthetic's Program being funded by the government and implemented through DARPA and DEKA. The program has $100 million in research money. What makes me think we, at They Shall Walk, can make a dent in this kind of research. Last year the budget was $150k at They Shall Walk, but donors only gave a little over $12,000 and I could only supplement $8,000 of my own money to the project. The shortfall was insurmountable. The plans for research progress had to change. There would be now LIFESUITs installed in hospitals in 2010 as planned in the time line. If the money comes it may be possible in 2011.
All of that aside, the plan will continue forward regardless of when the money comes.
The challenge with current prosthetic's (replacement limbs) and orthosis (braces and support devices like the LIFESUIT) that go beyond the cable and hook and aluminum and rivets tech level, is the power. It always comes down to the power level. The DARPA project has come up with amazing developments. One of the options they came up with was using combustible gas in pneumatic actuator systems, I read about this in a paper in 2005, (sorry I do not have a source, I will add it to a future blog) DARPA has a hydrogen peroxide system that produces gas to power a pneumatic system for a prosthetic arm too. The hydrogen peroxide system would take a cartridge in the morning, power the arm all day, steam would vent through the synthetic skin like sweat and the user would replace the cartridge in the morning.. When it comes down to the end user, you have a heavy arm that needs to be recharged and hand washed in the sink. When a power source is developed those problems will go away.
In the mean time the LIFESUIT is being powered by compressed air. When better power is developed hydraulics and electric actuators will be more of an option. With off of the shelf technology the LIFESUIT will enable millions of people to have mobility in the gym and at the local PT clinic.
Biosynthetics. In the depths of the University of Washington library system I had ordered all of the books and papers I could get my hands on about muscles. "Muscles for Food" "Muscle..this and Muscle that" It was all great reading. I was amazed at how interesting one topic can be when seen through so many authors' eyes. I think one of the most interesting papers was written by a grad student. I think it was a masters thesis (sorry no reference I am on a miny retreat and have no access to my library). She was doing experiments with muscles you grow in a dish. She started with freshly fertilized quail eggs and some tissue samples from lab rats. When she got the conditions right and just the right recipe the muscles would grow in 6-10 days and start twitching on their own. I never saw any other papers by this scientist. As far as I can tell she went on to work in some other division of science. When I unpack my library I hope to find her and see if she would like to continue her work. In the mean time I am picking up where her paper left off.
Our new lab used to be a restaurant and it has the infrastructure for a wet lab. A surplus incubator from an auction $2.50 and a sink from a garage sale. A used fridge that used to house our diet root beer at the NSCC lab will house the consumables.
Modifying the experiment from the masters thesis, I will grow muscle fibers and by trial and error experiment with different materials until we find the stuff that will combine with the muscle tissue. In wet labs, friends of mine who are growing muscles as replacement parts for injured people they have told me the biggest problem they have had is getting the muscles to bond to tendons. In the body they do just fine, it is in the wet lab that the difficulty shows up.
So it will come down to study of living tissue and the natural bonding in the body vs the way the muscle tissue interacts in a dish. If it would be possible to build a lattice or frame made of myosin or actin it is likely the muscle fibers will bond to it. Bottom line it will be a trial and error method.
While visiting Thomas Edison's lab/ museum I was inspired by the sheer horsepower of his experimental method. When he decided to do something he would just try every combination possible until he found something that worked. The light bulb and the battery took thousands of trys. Edison's opinion was that every item that did not work was a successful experiment. He discovered 5000 items that did not work, not 5000 failures but 5000 succesess. What a guy.
Once I have found a way to grow the biosynthetic muscle fiber the next step will be to keep it alive. Keep it alive, nourished, and powered. The muscles mechanism of operation is basically like this; Action potential arives from nerves (electric pulse) this causes a release of calcium ions. the calcium causes the myosin and actin to respond.. shortening the muscle and that is the contraction. This is the action of the biosynthetic muscle motor.
To keep it alive we have to consider the needs of the cell. Oxygen, nutrients, and hawling away waste products. I will try to keep the environment pure so we do not have to consider the imune system or biosynthetic imune system. When we get to that we may actually come up with cures for diseases.
My vision is for a component I call the "Fuel Pod" it is not a fuel cell it is not a battery, it is a pod that acts like the mitochondrea in the cells, it may produce ATP to fuel cell needs directly (ATP is like race fuel for cells) and help to process waste products.
A symbiotic combination of animal and plant cells may be the answer. Plant cells will use the sun and photosynthis will help to convert the animal waste liquids, solids and gas into fuel liquids solids and gas. Think about it. Plants waste is animal fuel and animal waste is plant fuel. You can see it on the farm, livestock manuere is fertalizer for the plants. Plants consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
If I can combine all of that into a "Fuel Pod" then we will have the answer. It may take a while but anything can be done with trial an error.
