Platelet Production, Pumped Up

摘要

More than 2 million units of platelets - the blood cells responsible for clotting - are transfused each year, with cancer patients receiving an important share of them. However, donors alone can't possibly meet the need; platelets have a shelf life of only five days, and by 2019, demand will exceed supply by 533,000 units. To ensure a steady, contaminant-free and abundant supply, in July Jonathan Thon's team at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston reported devising a bench-top "bioreactor on a chip." About the thickness of a quarter, the bioreactor "reproduces the physiology of bone marrow," says Thon.