"Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio States College of Engineering have developed a new technology Tissue Nanotransfection TNT that can generate any cell type of interest for treatment within the patients own body. This technology may be used to repair injured tissue or restore function of aging tissue including organs blood vessels and nerve cells.  Results of the regenerative medicine study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.  By using our novel nanochip technology injured or compromised organs can be replaced. We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining said Dr. Chandan Sen director of Ohio States Center for Regenerative Medicine  Cell Based Therapies who coled the study with L. James Lee professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering with Ohio States College of Engineering in collaboration with Ohio States Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.  Researchers studied mice and pigs in these experiments. In the study researchers were able to reprogram skin cells to become vascular cells in badly injured legs that lacked blood flow. Within one week active blood vessels appeared in the injured leg and by the second week the leg was saved. In lab tests this technology was also shown to reprogram skin cells in the live body into nerve cells that were injected into braininjured mice to help them recover from stroke.  This is difficult to imagine but it is achievable successfully working about  percent of the time. With this technology we can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch. This process only takes less than a second and is noninvasive and then youre off. The chip does not stay with you and the reprogramming of the cell starts. Our technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance so immune suppression is not necessary said Sen who also is executive director of Ohio States Comprehensive Wound Center.  TNT technology has two major components First is a nanotechnologybased chip designed to deliver cargo to adult cells in the live body. Second is the design of specific biological cargo for cell conversion. This cargo when delivered using the chip converts an adult cell from one type to another said first author Daniel GallegoPerez an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and general surgery who also was a postdoctoral researcher in both Sens and Lees laboratories.  TNT doesnt require any laboratorybased procedures and may be implemented at the point of care. The procedure is also noninvasive. The cargo is delivered by zapping the device with a small electrical charge thats barely felt by the patient.  The concept is very simple Lee said. As a matter of fact we were even surprised how it worked so well. In my lab we have ongoing research trying to understand the mechanism and do even better. So this is the beginning more to come.  Researchers plan to start clinical trials next year to test this technology in humans Sen said.   Funding for this research was provided by Leslie and Abigail Wexner Ohio States Center for Regenerative Medicine and CellBased Therapies and Ohio States Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center."