Building a better human

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James Cheadle / Smithsonian Magazine

Growing a human organ is a bit like baking a layer cake, says Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Lets say the cake we want is a kidney. After harvesting cells from the patients kidney and coaxing them to multiplymixing up the cake batterAtalas team bastes those cells onto a biodegradable scaffold, one painstaking layer at a time. Once theres the right amount, he says, we put it in an oven-like device that has the same conditions as the human body. The kidney bakes inside the bioreactor for a couple of weeks, where its also exercised. Then its ready for implant. Eventually, the scaffold melts away, leaving the new organ.

A donor kidney was the first organ to be successfully transplanted into a patient, in 1954. Five decades later, were building new ones from scratchgrowing them on scaffolds or printing them with modified desktop printers that shoot cells instead of ink. About 14 years ago, Atalas team implanted bioengineered bladders into patients and, he says, theyve lasted all these years. He and other scientists are moulding jumbles of cells into heart valves, ears, stomachs and skin. Theyre building advanced prosthetics, including bionic hands and legs, which mimic natural function and can even be controlled by our minds. More and more people will live their lives with these artificial parts integrated into their bodies.

The pace of discovery has moved so quickly, its caught even some experts off guard. A team of scientists, roboticists and engineers recently got together to see how much of a human being they could create from the ground upa Bionic Man, using lab-made parts that are already used in people, or will be soon. I was surprised by how much [of a person] we were able to build, says roboticist Rich Walker, managing director of Shadow Robot Company, who oversaw the project. The Bionic Man, which cost $1 million to makenot to mention the billions of dollars in research it representsis about 70 per cent complete. It has synthetic organs, including lungs, a pancreas, kidney, spleen and trachea; bionic hands, called the i-limb; synthetic blood pumping through an artificial heart that squeaks as it beats; and, most disconcertingly, a human face mounted on its cyborg frame. Walker mostly builds robots, but the Bionic Man is not a robot. Its a stand-in for a humanone that, within our lifetimes, some of us will begin to more closely resemble. We took things that are add-ons to a person, Walker says, and put them all together.

Its face is a replica of Bertolt Meyers, a professor at the University of Zurich, who wears an i-limb. Meyer was born missing his lower left arm. Like other electronic prosthetics, the i-limb (from Scotland-based Touch Bionics) has electrodes that press against his residual arm, reading signals given off by its muscles. Its articulated digits improve on other prosthetics clunky pinch. Individually powered fingers detect shapes of objects, allowing Meyer to hold a carrot and slice it, carry a bag, orfor the first time in his lifeextend his fingers and clap his hands. In the latest version of the i-limb, users program favourite grips into a smartphone and transmit them wirelessly to the prosthetic via Bluetooth. It comes in flesh tones, but Meyer opted for a clear casing so the mechanics within are visible. He likes to show it off. It comes across as high-tech, like having the newest iPhone.

Since 2009, when he was fitted with his first i-limb, Meyers been an unofficial ambassador for Touch Bionics. Outspoken, genial, and with a social scientists perspective (he teaches social and business psychology), he was asked to work on the Bionic Man. I said yes after I said no twice, says Meyer, who also hosts a documentary about the project. (The Incredible Bionic Man, a co-production from Channel 4 and the Smithsonian Channel, will air in Canada on Nov. 13.) Meyer raises a slew of disturbing questions, not least of which is who gets to benefit from these technological advances: his i-limb cost over $50,000, but the prosthetic can cost up to twice as much, depending on the needs of the patient. When artificial body parts begin to exceed the abilities of natural ones, should we allow people to chop off their limbs to replace them with bionic ones? Once they surpass natural counterparts, he says, market forces will take over, and theres money to be made. Just as we now lust after the latest iPhone, Meyer believes we will soon covet bionic eyes, ears and limbs.

The dream of building a person from artificial parts has always been tempered with uneasiness, a fear of the unnatural, of losing sight of what makes us human. (One need look no further than Mary Shelleys Frankenstein.) Meyers first encounter with his bionic doppelgnger provides one of the most unsettling moments of the documentary. As roboticists fix the eerily lifelike silicon face onto its skull, he begins to flush. Standing face to face with a cyborg version of himself, its robotic limbs outstretched, artificial organs exposed, Meyer is visibly uncomfortable. It looked like my own death mask, Meyer tells Macleans. After briefly staring down this cyborg version of himself, Meyer had to excuse himself and leave the room.

The Bionic Mans windpipe, arteries, urethra and bladder come from the lab of Dr. Alex Seifalian, a professor of nanotechnology and regenerative medicine at University College London. Other examples of all these lab-grown parts have also been implanted into patients, or are about to be. (The bladder and urethra are undergoing preclinical assessment.) Right now, were making a lot of ears, he says.

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Building a better human