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Soldier Re-Grows Leg Muscle After Experimental Procedure
Marine Isaias Hernandez has been able to grow back most of the missing muscle from his leg, including skeletal muscle, thanks to an experimental treatment involving an injection of a a growth promoting substance extracted from pig bladders. Hernandez lost 70% of his right thigh muscles from a mortar exploded attack in Afghanistan. Normally this type of injury would lead to an amputation. From the article: "In preparation for the operation, corporal Hernandez was made to build up the remaining 30 per cent of muscle left on the damaged thigh. Surgeons then sliced into the thigh, placing a thin slice of a substance called extracellular matrix. The surgery is the result of a $70 million investment by the US military into regenerative medicine research."
Not mentioned in the story is that he now has super-human jumping ability.
Great, so the crap that should be in Idle makes it to one of the main sections, and this important story ends up in Idle. Great work guys, great work.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
We won't need to go to Pandora after all ...
The article forgot to mention the key ingredient to the substance, Tiberium.
Somebody tell House!
I didn't see in the article how long it actually took for the muscle tissue to regenerate. The leg is a big piece of body to (re) grow. I'd be curious to know the timeline.
Hopefully this turns out better than the last season of House. That whole self-surgery scene was hard to watch for me. I could never, ever, ever do that on myself.
Slashdot sources an article from the dailymail....
You mad
Damnit, no! This is going to mean they'll wrap up House M.D. :(
GameRanger - multiplayer gaming service for PC and Mac games
Still waiting for that ultrasonic tooth regrowth stuff they were successfully testing in the military years ago. Where is it?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
... we can rebuild him? We do have the technology?
s/[stupid comments]/[intelligent discourse]/gi
...but remember, there is no benefit from war. /sarcasm
Soldier != Marine, goddamnit!
A corporation could have done it for $7 million of course they never would have because there is no money in it.
This procedure was medical research not regular medical care. $7 million is nothing for corporate medical research, a billion or more is spent researching a drug. Hundreds of millions are spent developing devices. Also once such a treatment becomes regular care it will probably be far less costly. I am not saying it may be easy to get, initially at least - in a century who knows, but I think you are not accurately representing the situation.
Something here doesn't sound kosher to me...
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
You know, like Obama PROMISED he would do ?
Remember the difference between Obama's empty words
and his actions, when the next election comes around.
This story is pretty awesome. I wish we had more of these and fewer smartphone OS dead-horse-beating marathons.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
being a lab scientist, that was painful to read. the explanation of the treatment is borderline gibberish. i've read better biology research reports by high school kids.
Always make sure you are carrying a TV whenever you do repaid on your truck.
Sure it makes the work ever so slighly more difficult, but you never know when you'll need something to take the shrapnel.
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here
Stephen F. Badylak and J. Peter Rubin at Pitt are working with funding from the Defense Department to develop an implantable extracellular matrix that can re-grow tissue. The matrix is a biological scaffold, enriched with proteins and growth factors, which recruits stem cells and other cell precursors to the site of the injury, according to the McGowan Institute's website. The therapy stimulates further tissue regeneration, essentially rebuilding the lost muscle.
I agree. $7 Million is small compared to most major drug research. The cost here was the research the matrix itself is cheap by comparison. I believe there is money to be made in this field. The ability to regrow damaged organs in particular muscle mass is vital to rehabilitation of most patients. This could cut out a lot of money spent in rehab. That's not to say rehab will be rendered unnecessary, but a large portion of time spent in rehab on rebuilding the initial muscle mass can be channeled towards increasing flexibility and endurance. In my opinion those are their largest losses in movement.
$70 million for the upper thigh of 1 marine truck mechanic eh? These sort of programs always have "hidden costs." They didn't say how much it cost to either A. buy the pig a new bladder or B. buy the beer for the pig roast.
Soldiers = Army Marine = Marine Corps Get your shit straight. Marines aren't soldiers, and if fucking pisses us off to be called them.
Sounds like something Dr. House needs to try this on himself next season.
Good luck finding an insurance provider to even help in covering treatment though...
Oh, and yeah, I doubt drug companies would have researched this. This is procedure, not pill. Fat chance of this being developed outside military medical research.
(snark, snark...)
I first read an article about body parts regenerated with dehydrated cell matrix made from pig bladders in 2008. Of course then it was only entire fingers, but still, the fact that anybody loses a body part permanently anymore is disgusting when we have this technology.
Also, corporations are far less
Where is the mod rating for "scary"? Also,
they will be able to predict earthquakes using sheep's bladders.
You are making a semantic argument that only makes sense to someone in the marines.
Soldier is a generic term that refers to someone in an army (army here is in the general meaning and not the US Army branch of the military). Marine would be a subset of that. Someone in the marines could be very accurately called a soldier. The only reason someone would object to conflating the terms would be if they were in the US marines and were overly sensitive to the rivalry with the US army.
To use your analogy it's more like a programmer getting offended at being called an IT worker because he is NOT JUST A DBA!
I suppose you could make an argument that since the marines are simply a branch of the navy he should have been called a sailor but that is a bit of a stretch.
I can't wait to hit him with an IED again!
Yours, Abu
we've just witnessed the genesis of a superhero : axolotlman!
newtman?
crayfishman?
starfishman?...
honestly, axolotlman is the best of the bunch, it sounds cooler and it's just weirder.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
...interested in finding a cure for attention deficit disorder.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
I think the researchers and surgeons DID repair his leg for less than $7 million. "The surgery is the result of a $70 million investment by the US military into regenerative medicine research," sounds to me not like the army spent $70 million on his leg, it sounds like that was the price tag of the whole study.
Kind of like how companies spend millions developing a new drugs: they're spending the money to learn how to make it. The actual finished product has to cost far, far less in order for anyone to buy it.
I'm guessing the actual costs of repairing his leg were in the thousands of dollars range, not 70 million.
You are right though that a private company would be unlikely to invest in this type of research, at least without significant grant money from taxpayers, precisely because there is no product to sell at the end.
A billion was spent researching a drug 20 years ago. Todays drugs are FAR closer to the 7 million mark.. It's been a rumor for a long time that drug research is amazingly expensive. It isn't.
man-bear-pig
side note, this is way cool.
As much as many don't like the idea of a standing military (the money, the wars, the deaths, the moral questions), this is just one fine example of how we all often benefit from what they're doing. Sure, it may take some time to reach non-military medical facilities and common practice, but it is nice to know that they do invest in things other than technologies that kill.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
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On one hand, the subject of the article is worthy of the front page. On the other hand, the only source covering it is the Daily Mail, whose reporting is usually about as accurate as hair salon gossip. I can't blame samzenpus for sticking it in Idle.
In the 1970s they could have done it for $6 million, and gotten another leg, an arm, and an eye in the bargain. And they wouldn't have to sit around waiting for muscles to grow. It was on TV and everything.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Yes unfortunately that's par for the course with the Daily Mail, the UK's answer to Fox News.
If you search around their website in amongst the horseshit about celebrities and completely made-up articles about crazy new EU 'laws' you'd also find their ongoing effort to divide all inanimate objects in the world (especially foods) into those that either cause cancer or cure it.
I'll believe in miracle new treatments when there's a more credible source article.
Pre-canned Evolution Links for all those Slashdot holy wars.
You would think that the "Alliance for Human Research Protection" would be keen to get into the drug research industry since its soooo cheap and they have a vested interest in how trials are conducted. Yet they dont...maybe they are pulling numbers out of their ass?
way to instatroll. You realize that the AHRP has nothing to do with the article, it was just a lazy way of linking to it, right? Maybe they have nothing to do with it.
A Green Lantern review and a bunch of stuff about the Microsoft takeover of Skype are littering the front page and an article about someone being able to regrow muscles in their leg thanks to SCIENCE ends up in the idle box? Thanks a lot, Slashdot.
I read about this stuff regrowing fingers back in 2007. It seems it can do even more. I just hope it becomes more readily available.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
solÂdier
â â[sohl-jer] Show IPA
â"noun
1. a person who serves in an army; a person engaged in military service.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Ever since after the procedure, he eats a lot.
Some say he eats like a pig.
I am not well versed in regenerative biology, but my girlfriend happens to be getting her PhD in that field. I sent her this link for comment and here's what she said:
From article: "The wounded Marine's recovery is particularly exciting for scientists as it involves the regeneration of skeletal muscle which ordinarily does not grow back"
From any book in any regenerative scientist's library: "It has been known for more than a century that skeletal muscle, the most abundant tissue of the body, has the ability to regenerate new muscle fibers after it has been damaged by injury or as a consequence of diseases such as muscular dystrophy (1)"
(in this case the reference = Carlson BM. The regeneration of skeletal muscle. A review. Am J Anat. 1973;137(2):119–149. View this article via: PubMed CrossRef)
Annoying! Maybe he is on to something that really does help quicken the natural regeneration response or promotes better healing or something, but no one will ever know because there are no controls. He has no mouse controls... he obviously can't do human controls and people are just slapping this stuff on there because... "at least it doesn't hinder the response". (but he could be charging billions for a placebo!)
Oh well. Science is stupid. The media is even dumber.
In other words: Slashdot, please stop posting articles from the Daily Mail. Also, on background, I know the doctor mentioned in the article, Badylak, was kicked out of his group for poor research practices that included trial by media instead of peer review. This sort of publicity piece is his MO.
All stated opinions are subject to further review
Explain again how sheeps' bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.
This has amazing possibilities for healing the disabled with certain disabilities I am sure of that, this is medical science at it`s best, with the soldier who otherwise would have an artificial leg, but he can regenerate the muscles in the damaged limb with implantation. This is what we need to help our injured soldiers from Iraq & Afghanistan. We should be able to help these people regenerate tissue instead of just chopping off the limb.
liberare massarum ex ignorantia, clausa descendit molestie.
A link to the actual paper, with references....
http://www.pharmamyths.net/files/Biosocieties_2011_Myths_of_High_Drug_Research_Costs.pdf
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Soldier is a generic term that refers to someone in an army (army here is in the general meaning and not the US Army branch of the military).
So far so good...
Marine would be a subset of that.
Woops! Marines are a subset of a navy...not an army; They are the naval infantry.
...a guy lost his 3 of his fingers in the WWII so the scientists implanted him cow teats. Two years after that he was making 10 liters milk a day. And he wasn't even a marine
They fixed up Steve Austin for a mere $6 million.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
I see your point and agree that either way it would have been more accurate.
It is possible that I may have been reacting to a perceived elitist attitude that it is obvious you don't have. I apologize.
didn't know we can do that. This is amazing, I feel incredible
captcha: combine..... how appropriate regarding the reference.
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there was a huge problem wit the technology, every time you started running it looked like goddam 70s slow motion.
Also the noise was awful, sounded like an horrible little crescendo tune in a loop.
Too many defaults for the cost, we had to bin it 8p
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Todays drugs are FAR closer to the 7 million mark..
My wife works in regulatory affairs for a biotech. After a large-scale trial for a specific drug currently in development, FDA panel was split and ordered another trial. Cost just for the trial is expected to top $15 million. Further, the link you cite indicates median cost is closer to $60 million PLUS "discovery" costs, whatever that is.
This technology is currently being used in horses and not just in a research fashion, but for treatment. Vets can buy the dehydrated ECM which is also available in sheets and discs for eye problems.
Here's a PDF reprint from "The Chronicle of the Horse" from ACell.com: http://acell.com/news/TCOTHACellArticle.pdf
Let's just hope he doesn't wind up in a bathtub trying to cut tumors out of his leg.
"Don't be a martyr -- BE THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY!"
"mortar exploded attack"
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Fair enough, but I bit this marine wasn't storming a beach when the enemy hit him in Afghanistan. It's land-locked.
No to mention Libya, for which he doesn't even have authorization from Congress. That's actually worse than Bush.
What's your point? that's not in the billions like the original comment.
.
It's not to say that it's zero, but that it's a whole lot lower than claimed.
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Uh... I know they like to act as if it's a big difference, but the only real difference is that one has extra weeks of basic training. Beyond that, they're effectively the same thing, except in name.
House used an imaginary drug which he injected himself with - not an implant.
an implantable extracellular matrix that can re-grow tissue.
The matrix is a biological scaffold, enriched with proteins and growth factors, which recruits stem cells and other cell precursors to the site of the injury, according to the McGowan Instituteâ(TM)s website.
The therapy stimulates further tissue regeneration, essentially rebuilding the lost muscle.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Not sure if your whole post was snark or not, but I don't see why insurance companies wouldn't fund it. It is probably significantly cheaper than prosthetics, and the associated medical costs that come from loss of limb.
Include all the failed, rejected, and pulled/banned drugs into the price of the successful ones and you will find yourself much closer to the former number than the latter.
My own company has developed what appears to be a cure for prostate cancer. We are proceeding with animal trials, but it will be many, MANY years before it hits the market, and many, MANY millions of dollars. Even with help from Armed Forces research funds.
No, they gave me a pill and it makes me pay a lot more
Mods change the title. He's a Marine...not a Soldier. There is a difference, and he deserves the recognition...no matter what our political leanings and feelings on the subject of Afghanistan are.
I agree completely. If you would prefer an alternative, Popular Science is covering the story here:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-06/tissue-engineers-regenerate-muscle-cells-saving-afghanistan-veteran%E2%80%99s-leg [popsci.com]
Remember that an official war was never actually declared. So the G.I.'s CAN'T be sent into battle. To the best of my knowledge, the ground forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq are mostly Marines.
All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
It was all snark. This would likely fall under "experimental procedure" or "under study" for a good 20-30 years. Penny-wise, pound-foolish.
Well, unless it was *drastically* cheaper...time will tell...
To be fair, that cost includes the legal and regulatory mandates that this country is so famous for. Drugs that provably save lives in europe take an additional decade of testing to be used in the US for example.
To differentiate between statist and nonstatist medical innovation, one cannot simply look at state and corporate differences. Corporations themselves are a creation of government.
I've been receiving emails about this advance in ahem muscle enlargement for YEARS. It doesn't even require surgery anymore, it's all done via cheap herbal pills. Doesn't ANYONE here check the stories before they're published?
He can also now find truffles in no time at all! But in all seriously, this is one of the first expenditures of money from our Gov that I've seen in a long time that supports our troops and isn't stupid. Good work!
It is not customary for a member of the U.S. Marine Corps to use the title "soldier."
Some people may argue that "soldier" is a generic term that can be applied to any servicemember. However, in actual use, "soldier" specifically means a member of the Army. U.S. servicemembers are referred to as soldiers (USA), sailors (USN), airmen (USAF), or Marines (USMC). Calling a Marine a "soldier" is akin to calling a Senator a "Congressman" - using the term may be technically correct in a very narrow sense, but that's not how native speakers with contextual knowledge use the term, and you are suggesting that the person in question has not earned the right to be counted among the members of a smaller, specialized body.
(To counter the argument that this is somehow elitist: very few Marines, even Recon Marines, would look down their nose at Deltas, who are unambiguously "soldiers." But the Marine Corps has a distinctive culture and history. Would you tell a Hmong family "Thai is a generic term that refers to someone from Thailand. Hmong would be a subset of that. The only reason someone would object to conflating the terms would be if they were Hmong and were overly sensitive"?)
http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40051
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061108110349AAcUIiC
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22soldier+in+the+Marine+corps%22+OR+%22Marine+soldier%22+OR+%22Marine+Corps+soldier%22
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22soldiers%2C%20sailors%2C%20airmen%2C%20and%20Marines%22
No, you don't. That is the point. Some drugs fail, but testing has become more efficient and so failures are less likely. So include all the old bullshit claims and you're not any closer to reality than the people who believe it costs billions for medical research.
If it costs billions, it's not being done right. Look at all the health benefits from vegetable based diets and shit which costs nothing to even research vs the millions we spend on diabetes medicine. etc etc.
The only reason drugs are so costly is because of how the FDA is set up. Go to another country where medical tourism is rampant and you see both a: better drugs/medicine/research/healthcare/more qualified doctors and b: substantially lower costs
Why should nerds be concerned with regrowing muscles?
See video on a man re-growing his thumb (complete with thumbnail)!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwcT1ViM-hw
The article is just the tip of the iceberg... The military has used this material (ACell, made from pig bladders) successfully on multiple soldiers and recently on my retired Army spouse. The plastic surgery and wound care clinics at the NNMC in Bethesda are using this pixie dust with great results! It boosts the body's ability to heal and regenerate multiple tissue types, from skin to muscle, fat, etc. Good stuff. It'll become more widely available in civilian care as word gets out. The medical industry is surprisingly slow to spread new techniques and technologies as so many doctors operate independently, whereas in the military there's a top-down approach that sometimes works faster to deploy new methods -- generally during times of war such as the current tempo of 2007-2011.
Civilian health care is scary...so many independent contractors, very much a bet on organized chaos. You can find excellent health care in America, but you can also find less than best...it's a lot like picking up day-workers, auto-mechanics, or restaurants, in terms of quality/cost/risk - for every hero you find there's at least one putz you want to avoid next time. Definitely strive to be your own advocate or find a friend who can be your advocate and perform research to double-check what the doctors are doing. Recommend new technologies, get a second opinion, and you'll often find there are a lot more options available than you may hear from the first doctor you encounter at the local urgent care center or ER.