The prestigious American magazine's top 50 recognizes the organizations and individuals "who, via the promotion of science and technology, lay the foundations for a better future."
Dr. Levenberg, 37, an Orthodox religious mother of five, is a biomedical nano-technological engineer who specializes in stem cell tissue engineering research. Her work is geared towards manufacturing artificial tissues, with the goal of forming artificial replacement organs. She spent five years in MIT in Boston.
Scientific American explains that one of the obstacles in tissue engineering progress is the inability of thick tissue such as muscle, once it is implanted in a patient, to receive sufficient penetration of new blood vessels from the body's own network. The tissue is thus in danger of dying. Addressing that problem, Levenberg and her Technion team have created small muscle pieces capable of generating their own blood vessels.
The researchers built a plastic biodegradable scaffold supporting three types of cells: myoblasts that become muscle fibers, endothelial cells that form into vessel tubes, and fibroblasts that are the precursors to the smooth muscle cells that stabilize the cell walls. The Levenberg team found that twice as many cells survived when implanted with all three cell types than with implants unaccompanied by the endothelial cells. The technique might eventually help address the persistent challenge of supplying engineered cells with oxygen and nutrients and allowing them to remove wastes.
Dr. Levenberg's work has resulted in four inventions whose U.S. patents are currently pending. They involve nanoliter-scale synthesis of arrayed biomaterials and screening with human embryonic stem cells, endothelial cells from these cells, and engineering three-dimensional tissue structures using differentiating human embryonic stem cells.
Dr. Levenberg, 37, an Orthodox religious mother of five, is a biomedical nano-technological engineer who specializes in stem cell tissue engineering research. Her work is geared towards manufacturing artificial tissues, with the goal of forming artificial replacement organs. She spent five years in MIT in Boston.
Scientific American explains that one of the obstacles in tissue engineering progress is the inability of thick tissue such as muscle, once it is implanted in a patient, to receive sufficient penetration of new blood vessels from the body's own network. The tissue is thus in danger of dying. Addressing that problem, Levenberg and her Technion team have created small muscle pieces capable of generating their own blood vessels.
The researchers built a plastic biodegradable scaffold supporting three types of cells: myoblasts that become muscle fibers, endothelial cells that form into vessel tubes, and fibroblasts that are the precursors to the smooth muscle cells that stabilize the cell walls. The Levenberg team found that twice as many cells survived when implanted with all three cell types than with implants unaccompanied by the endothelial cells. The technique might eventually help address the persistent challenge of supplying engineered cells with oxygen and nutrients and allowing them to remove wastes.
Dr. Levenberg's work has resulted in four inventions whose U.S. patents are currently pending. They involve nanoliter-scale synthesis of arrayed biomaterials and screening with human embryonic stem cells, endothelial cells from these cells, and engineering three-dimensional tissue structures using differentiating human embryonic stem cells.