Mussel Glue Could Help Repair Birth Defects 53
sciencehabit writes "When it comes to hanging on tight, the lowly mussel has few rivals in nature. Researchers have sought the secrets behind the bivalve's steadfast grip on wet, slippery rock. Now, a researcher says he has used the mollusk's tricks to develop medical applications. These include a biocompatible glue that could one day seal fetal membranes, allowing prenatal surgeons to repair birth defects without triggering dangerous premature labor."
Always 15-20 years til commercially available... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Always 15-20 years til commercially available.. (Score:5, Funny)
I half expect now, to learn that some surgeon in the 1700's was already using it experimentally.
No, in the 1700's, surgeons were using leeches as clamps to hold things together.
Re:Always 15-20 years til commercially available.. (Score:5, Insightful)
15 years ago is about right actually..
Consider:
"We are the FDA. We demand you make very costly animal model studies first, then, after those studies, you have conduct phase 1 and phase 2 human clinical trials, THEN, AFTER THAT, we have to decide if we want to approve commercial use and production or not."
Throw in a few bouts of "Oh my gawd! They put clam juice inside some poor gerbil, and glued it all up inside! THOSE MONSTERS!", and a few rounds of "Animal models are poor substitutes for human testing, and amount to nothing, so you arent getting funding."
In the end, 15 years since "Hey! This stuff looks very promising as a biosafe adhesive for surgical applications!" looks like BREAKNECK PROGRESS!
(and you wonder why rich americans with deadly diseases and debilitating conditions leave the US to go on "Medical vacations" in the EU and Thailand.)
If it weren't for the FDA (Score:4, Insightful)
this would still be the 1700's.
Re: (Score:2)
this would still be the 1700's.
I didn't realize the FDA was responsible for the passage of time. Wow, that's a big job.
On a more serious note, the FDA was founded in 1906. What has the FDA done over the past 100 years that make it so essential to progress?
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know (honestly). Perhaps keeping drugs off the market that would make the side effects of Thalidomide seem minor?
(BTW, it's available for other uses, with an image of a pregnant woman with a circle-slash on each pill.. at least that's what I saw on the news long ago.)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know (honestly). Perhaps keeping drugs off the market that would make the side effects of Thalidomide seem minor? (BTW, it's available for other uses, with an image of a pregnant woman with a circle-slash on each pill.. at least that's what I saw on the news long ago.)
You know the saying "Victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan"?
It's easy to claim that the FDA fixed or improved things; it's not as easy to list the treatments prevented by the FDA that could have helped people, because it's invisible. It's hard to see the wasted potential, but those are the hard-to-quantify side effects of regulatory agencies.
Re:Always 15-20 years til commercially available.. (Score:5, Informative)
(and you wonder why rich americans with deadly diseases and debilitating conditions leave the US to go on "Medical vacations" in the EU and Thailand.)
It is the other way around in the UK. Rich people tend to go to America to get medical procedures that aren't approved by the health authorities here.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
If you've got enough money you can always get what you want.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Want good care that you might have to wait a while for, but won't bankrupt you in the process?
Well, in quite a lot of European countries, you need to have paid certain amount of tax before they let you join the queue. There are laws deterring medical tourism. It might end up costing the same as US, if you go to EU for medical tourism.
Re: (Score:1)
Ha. And as the earlier poster should have said but somehow forgot to, the purpose of all the years of testing is to find out whether it actually works. Most of the things you can get done by going somewhere and paying someone to do it "off the books" don't work, which is why they're not making a fortune doing it somewhere civilised.
Every few months the UK newspapers have some stories about some poor kid (sometimes a teenager but more often a kid) who has (whatever incurable disease, maybe a cancer) and is g
Re:Always 15-20 years til commercially available.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Americans go on "medical vacations" because they can't afford US health care. Doctors, drugs, etc. are all cheaper anywhere else but the US and if you pick wisely, you can find better quality doctors and facilities.
Re: (Score:2)
I think it's more than the FDA - I read about 10 years ago that mussel glue was demonstrated to be a non-toxic waterproof long-lasting super-strong plywood adhesive. It hasn't taken over my Home Depot yet.
Does it come in industrial size containers? (Score:1)
I was thinking of using this glue on the chairs in Congress. That might keep those slippery critters there longer so maybe something will get done.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
The chapter is talking about the unfaithfulness of god's chosen people. The women in the story represent Israel and Samaria.
I happen to know that. And it's interesting that the ancient Israelites chose to visualize geopolitics with sex role playing (the feminist modernity would probably use pie charts), but it's still an evocative picture, innit?
Re: (Score:1)
Now everybody is working on figuring out how to fix the education system so the next generation learns something other than "people get fixed by a magic overseer".
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Said the ignorant hipster fuckhead who was fortunate enough to be born without life-threatening birth defects. Although you were certainly born with your head up your asshole.
Re:Always 15-20 years til commercially available.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Birth defects can come from any number of sources, and are not necessarily indicative that the parents are genetically unfit.
Take for instance, spinal tube defects arising from improper prenatal nutrition in the female, in regard to folate intake.
Which would you rather have: Mommy and Daddy with "Wheelchair Willie", their precious angel, that requires 24/7 nursing, monitoring, special needs assistance, and government support for life---
Or: "Willie" is perfectly healthy and normal after doctors surgically promoted proper neural tube closure, with the help of a bio-safe adhesive and embryonic surgery techniques.
This is a no-brainer even for self-centered assholes who hate other people being alive. (Because of the inconveniences those other people make for them.)
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Birth defects can come from any number of sources, and are not necessarily indicative that the parents are genetically unfit.
I know reading comprehension isn't all the rage these days.
So I will spell out for you the obvious alternative for would-be parents. Instead of deciding that 7+ billion people still isn't enough, they could oh I don't know, adopt a lonely unwanted child who really needs a loving family. Why, that would in fact be less selfish than propagating your own DNA like our instincts want us to do.
This is a no-brainer even for self-centered assholes who hate other people being alive. (Because of the inconveniences those other people make for them.)
Yes, some of us think about 1 billion people living with abundant resources for everybody, a real time of plenty, is
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but I didn't sign up in time to get a three-digit userid.
I recommend you look for wordpress or pure html/css sites with no gravatars or disqus, and the kind of high-contrast ergonomic theming that makes liberal arts majors run screaming for the hills (i.e. no eye-destroying grey-on-white text, no extraneous images or banners). If y
Re: (Score:1)
Try to pick examples that aren't stupid.
Re: (Score:2)
Try to pick examples that aren't stupid.
If you happen to live in a country with fully socialized medicine, I suppose ordinary people/voters may have some at least indirect voice in what treatments will be made medically available. However, welcome to USA-centric Slashdot, let's take a look here...
- Mostly capitalistic, patient (ins. co.) funded care, especially on the "bleeding edge" of innovation: [CHECK]
- Parents are merely human, and may for whatever reason not take their pills or have another chemical imbalance: [CHECK]
- Parents care a lot m
Re: (Score:1)
A hell of a lot cheaper.
Re: (Score:3)
Birth defects can come from any number of sources, and are not necessarily indicative that the parents are genetically unfit.
Bingo. I have VACTERL [tefvater.org] defects, and my (internationally top-ranked) pediatric surgeon at UC San Francisco made it clear that there was *nothing* my parents did wrong or could've done to prevent it -- birth defects like mine are random errors/mutations within the first month of development, and aren't passed on to the next generation.
Which would you rather have: ..."Wheelchair Willie"...Or: "Willie" is perfectly healthy and normal ... This is a no-brainer even for self-centered assholes who hate other people being alive. (Because of the inconveniences those other people make for them.)
It's not a no-brainer for those of us that actually have birth defects, actually. A hell of a lot of people that are born disabled agree with the social model of disability [wikipedia.org]; we'
Re: (Score:2)
Wow. IIRC, I made a comment on 'usenet' back in 1988 or so suggesting that people who claim they are happy with their Down's child just as they are and would not want some special (theoretical) cure are just plain selfish and foolish. I got flamed,as one might imagine. And here we are, 25 years later, and there's a whole websited community claiming the right to refuse treatment for major physical fuckups? I can understand a person going through a careful tradeoff of surgical (or medical) risk/ bene
mod parent up (Score:2)
If there is only .01% of the US population at any given time with defects that could have been fixed through some wacky procedure that is reasonably sound, isn't it worth putting some effort into preventing 30k people from suffering? What's is being ignored is that this procedure wouldn't even be mandatory, so what is there to lose? To put an economic spin on it: As a fully-functioning US citizen, I am willing to spend some of my tax dollars in an effort to potentially save $5 million each year in direct
Re: (Score:2)
I read about this very thing in the news 15 years ago! I half expect now, to learn that some surgeon in the 1700's was already using it experimentally. Get off your ass, medical science!
Right, because testing theories on unborn children is the scientific way!
I for one (Score:4, Funny)
welcome our Mussel Glued Children of tomorrow!
Hopefully they will be delivered in our flying cars that haven't shown up yet.
mussel glue (Score:3)
This is why I do weight training to build up my mussels.
Re: (Score:2)
I have my mussels do their own weight training. (I discovered that my weight training had no effect on my mussels.)
I found these little weights and glued them to the shells... works great and gives me big fat mussels (delicious).
Re: (Score:2)
Your not too bright. Clearly from TFS mussels make their own glue. Just rub their belly on the rocks then stick them on their backs. I just saved you potentially tens of dollars. You're welcome.
Re: (Score:3)
Hey, I do the same thing!