生物？ 機械？ サイボーグ？
(c) The President and Fellows of Harvard College/File photo by Kris Snibbe, Harvard Staff Photographer
Harvard大学のCharles M. Lieber教授
電子装置を内蔵した，いわゆるサイボーグ組織が作られた。内蔵された装置は組織に影響せずにその化学的・電気的状態を検出できる。作成にはまず，三次元の網状構造を微小ワイヤーで形成し，これに細胞を植え付けた。同様の平面構造は研究されていたが，三次元構造の作成は初めてという。心臓と神経の組織が作成され，細胞からの電気信号と，心臓や神経を刺激する薬物に反応した信号の変化を検出できた。血管も作成され，生体では炎症や虚血で起こるpHの変化を測定できた。薬物の組織内での挙動の分析や，移植すれば生体内の変化の検出と，それに応じた薬物の放出などに応用できると考えられる。（吉田素子）
Merging the Biological, Electronic
Researchers Grow Cyborg Tissues with Embedded Nanoelectronics
Harvard scientists have created a type of “cyborg” tissue for the first time by embedding a three-dimensional network of functional, biocompatible, nanoscale wires into engineered human tissues.
As described in a paper published Aug. 26 in the journal Nature Materials, a research team led by Charles M. Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Harvard, and Daniel Kohane, a Harvard Medical School professor in the Department of Anesthesia at Children’s Hospital Boston, developed a system for creating nanoscale “scaffolds” that can be seeded with cells that grow into tissue.
“The current methods we have for monitoring or interacting with living systems are limited,” said Lieber. “We can use electrodes to measure activity in cells or tissue, but that damages them. With this technology, for the first time, we can work at the same scale as the unit of biological system without interrupting it. Ultimately, this is about merging tissue with electronics in a way that it becomes difficult to determine where the tissue ends and the electronics begin.”
Contributing to the work were Robert Langer, from the Koch Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Zhigang Suo, the Allen E. and Marilyn M. Puckett Professor of Mechanics and Materials at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
The research addresses a concern that has long been associated with work on bioengineered tissue: how to create systems capable of sensing chemical or electrical changes in the tissue after it has been grown and implanted.
［単語和訳］
Merging：～を統合すること Biological：生物学的（なもの） Electronic：電子的（なもの） Researchers：研究者 Cyborg：サイボーグ Tissues：組織 Embedded：内蔵された Nanoelectronics：ナノ電子（デバイス）
three-dimensional network：三次元ネットワーク functional：機能的 biocompatible：生体適合性の nanoscale：ナノスケールの
Anesthesia：麻酔 scaffolds：骨組み cells：細胞
interacting：相互作用すること electrodes：電極 interrupting：妨げる Ultimately：究極的には in a way that：ある意味では
Contributing to：～に貢献している Mechanics：力学 Applied Sciences：応用科学
addresses：取り組む has been associated with：～に関連してきた bioengineered：生物工学により作成された has been implanted：埋め込まれた
