THE FARM REVEALED
PROGRAMME 4: TISSUE ENGINEERING
ACTIVITIES
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Clip-related activities
To view 4Learning video clips you will need Windows XP/2000 and Windows Media Player 9, 10 or 11. Unfortunately, the clips are not supported on Macintosh computers.
The video clips may contain a few seconds of extra material at the beginning and end. We have therefore included opening and closing descriptions to help identify the intended scene.
Cell culture and cell type
Watch the first clip, discuss the questions briefly and then move on to the second clip. The exercise is designed to demonstrate the difference between ordinary tissue cells and stem cells.
Activity 1
Clip 1: 02:03 – 03:04
- Opens with Chris saying, 'What we wanna do with this…'
- Closes with Chris saying, '… in the solution there.'
Would you eat beef that is grown in this way? Is this kind of meat vegetarian friendly?
Activity 2
Clip 2: 10:56 – 1154
- Opens with Olivia in voice-over saying, 'Twenty years ago, umbilical cords like this one…'
- Closes with Rufus in voice-over saying, '…they have the power to become any part of the body.'
What is the difference between meat cells and stem cells?
(Stem cells are called 'totipotent' because they have ability to change into all the different tissue types in our bodies (skin, liver, eyes, etc). When a stem cell divides and produces, say, skin cells, then we describe those cells as 'committed'. That means that when they divide, they can only make more skin cells and nothing else. Meat cells are committed muscle cells, whereas stem cells are totipotent.)
Now read the first page of the following feature:
www.channel4.com/science/microsites/
S/science/medicine/liveforever.html
Think about the difference between plant and animal/human stem cells. Could you grow a whole cow from some hoof clippings?
(Animals only have stem cells in certain parts of their bodies (bone marrow, embryo, umbilical cord, liver, etc). Plants maintain stem cells in all their tissues. Hence, you can grow a whole plant from a tiny piece of leaf.)
Further activities
Ethics and commercial tissue culture
List as many commercial applications of tissue engineering as you can.
Now read the Royal Society pages about patenting:
www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=2132
Discuss whether patenting biological material is a good thing. Why does the Royal Society feel that patenting might not be a good thing? What are conflicts between commercial patenting systems and academic science? Why might patents put some scientists off working on certain genes?
Science has traditionally been a process that is open to public scrutiny, whereas patenting requires that the development processes are kept secret until a technology emerges. What effects might this have upon a scientific process? What effects might this have on the availability and use of medicines?
Tissue culture and art
Have a look at the tissue culture and art project in the University of Western Australia web pages:
http://www.tca.uwa.edu.au/
Discuss what the term semi-living means.
Either as a group, or individually, come up with an idea for a conceptual artwork that would fit in with the Tissue Culture and Art Project. Describe the art and the concept. What does your piece mean? What is the significance of making it out of semi-living material?
