wetwareontologies: Cells cultured along origami seams, prodded to self assemble into 3D shapes. Future applications include organ growth and drug delivery. Awesome! If you missed this cellular origami technique a couple weeks ago, you can read about it in this post of mine from a couple weeks ago. On a side note, I’m always happy when people turn science into GIFs.
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wetwareontologies: Cells cultured along origami seams, prodded to self assemble into 3D shapes. Future applications include organ growth and drug delivery. Awesome! If you missed this cellular origami technique a couple weeks ago, you can read about it in this post of mine from a couple weeks ago. On a side note, I’m always happy when people turn science into GIFs.
Zoom Info
wetwareontologies: Cells cultured along origami seams, prodded to self assemble into 3D shapes. Future applications include organ growth and drug delivery. Awesome! If you missed this cellular origami technique a couple weeks ago, you can read about it in this post of mine from a couple weeks ago. On a side note, I’m always happy when people turn science into GIFs.
Zoom Info
wetwareontologies: Cells cultured along origami seams, prodded to self assemble into 3D shapes. Future applications include organ growth and drug delivery. Awesome! If you missed this cellular origami technique a couple weeks ago, you can read about it in this post of mine from a couple weeks ago. On a side note, I’m always happy when people turn science into GIFs.
Zoom Info
wetwareontologies: Cells cultured along origami seams, prodded to self assemble into 3D shapes. Future applications include organ growth and drug delivery. Awesome! If you missed this cellular origami technique a couple weeks ago, you can read about it in this post of mine from a couple weeks ago. On a side note, I’m always happy when people turn science into GIFs.
Zoom Info

wetwareontologies:

Cells cultured along origami seams, prodded to self assemble into 3D shapes. Future applications include organ growth and drug delivery.

Awesome! If you missed this cellular origami technique a couple weeks ago, you can read about it in this post of mine from a couple weeks ago. On a side note, I’m always happy when people turn science into GIFs.

(via scientificthought)

Source: blogs.scientificamerican.com

Scientists Use Cells to Fold Origami

Picture a gingerbread house. Without the frosting that glues its walls and windows together, it would be nothing but a disorganized pile of cookies and candy. The “glue” makes it all possible. 

So it is with our bodies. We are a carefully organized cellular panoply of dozens of cell types, from muscle to bone to nerve, but without connective tissue, we’d just be a pile of cellular mush. Much of our cellular glue is created by a type of cell called a “fibroblast”, which secretes a sticky web called the extracellular matrix that those muscle, bone, nerve and other cells use as a sort of structural scaffold. These fibroblasts, as anyone who’s ever seen them under a microscope knows, are known for their spiky, tentacle-like arms, allowing them to move and squeeze into our the nooks and crannies that make up … well, the inside of us.

The fibroblast cells in this video were placed on the hinges of microscopic origami patterns. When their sticky, prehensile arms pull on those hinges, they are able to fold them into 3D shapes, using the same structural goop and scaffolds that hold our bodies together!

Very cool. Let’s see them make a crane.

(via PsiVid)

Source: blogs.scientificamerican.com

DNA Origami, Sculpted This is a sculpted representation of a nanoparticle made from DNA “origami” fragments, specially designed sequences of nucleic acids that can be used as building blocks for all kinds of molecular structures. We’ve seen it make its way into everything from stars and smiley faces to Lego-like DNA bricks. (orig. paper for the origami structure)
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DNA Origami, Sculpted

This is a sculpted representation of a nanoparticle made from DNA “origami” fragments, specially designed sequences of nucleic acids that can be used as building blocks for all kinds of molecular structures. We’ve seen it make its way into everything from stars and smiley faces to Lego-like DNA bricks.

(orig. paper for the origami structure)

Hexaflexagons!!

Happy October! Behold this lovely tale of extra paper, folding fun, and the trans-dimensional colortastic geometric wow-fest that is the hexaflexagon!!

Can someone fold me a few of these and send ‘em over? That would be great. I fully endorse not paying attention in math class if you’re gonna do this instead.

(by the wonderful Vihart)

Source: youtube.com

I, DNA NANOBOT

When you think of powerful weapons to fight cancer, origami is not your first thing you think of. But we’re not talking about paper cranes. We are talking about folding DNA to deliver cancer drugs right where they’re needed.

Remember DNA origami from last year? It’s not just whimsical shapes and nanometer-scale smiley faces. Biophysicists from Harvard have designed carefully-folded DNA barrels that can bind payloads on the inside (like drugs) and attach to cancer cell-specific targeting molecules (called aptamers) on the outside.

The nano bots then target their specific cancer type, springing open to deliver their killer drug cargo. It’s a “smart drug” of sorts. By designing different aptamer molecules to direct the bots to various targets, cancer drugs can be delivered very specifically, without many of the side effects of general chemotherapy.

(via Nature News, video and image from Wyss Institute)

Source: nature.com