Tissue Engineering Is an Interdisciplinary Term Paper

(World Bank, 2007) Modern approaches to plant cloning or tissue culture techniques have been utilized by various nurseries in Thailand and the U.S. To bring rare and new species of plants in the commercial market, sometimes even before the botanists can manage to give the species a name. (Ogden, 2007)

Tissue engineered products have a bright marketing potential since they provide better alternatives to other forms of treatments. Cartilage and skin products have already been clinically approved and are available commercially. The Department of Health and Human Services in the U.S. has estimated that the future worldwide market for products of tissue engineering will be around $500 billion by 2010. A report published by the National Security Research Division of RAND corporation in 2006 has emphasized that tissue engineering will have a positive effect on more than one-third of the issues concerning a country's development including social structure, individual health, governance, economic growth and international commerce. Given the recent strides in tissue engineering and bio-nanotechnology, it may be perfectly possible to fabricate the perfect artificial intelligence device, an artificial brain, in the laboratory. This brings us to the dangers of such technologies, a danger similar to the outcome of the advances in modern physics - the atom bomb. (Gazit, 2006)

The commercial prospect of tissue engineering is yet to be realized despite tremendous developments in this field. As of 2002, approximately, $4.5 billion have been spent on research and development activities.However, very few of the products of tissue engineering have proved to be commercially successful. Moreover, ethical and political aspects of fertility treatments, cloning, stem cell research and genetically modified food can influence or hamper further research and development in this field. (Friedman, 2007)

References

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Friedman, Yali. (2007) "The Business of Biotechnology: Profit from the Expanding Influence of..." Logos Press.

Gazit, Ehud. (2006) "Plenty of room for biology at the bottom: an introduction to bionanotechnology" Imperial College Press.

Kessler, Jack. (2008, Apr) "Promising New Nanotechnology for Spinal Cord Injury" Retrieved 1 May, 2008 at http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2008/04/SpinalCordInjury.html

N.A. (2007, Spring) "Orthopaedic research - a joint approach" Arthritis Today, vol. 136, Retrieved 1 May, 2008 at http://www.arc.org.uk/news/arthritistoday/136_3.asp

N.A. (2007) "Tissue Engineering and Stem Cell Technology Report 2007" Retrieved 1 May, 2008 at http://www.bioportfolio.com/cgi-bin/acatalog/Tissue_Engineering_and_Stem_Cell_Technology_Report_2007.html

Ogden, Scott. (2007) "Garden Bulbs for the South"

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Petersen, Matthew C; Lazar, Jozef; Jacob, Howard J; Wakatsuki, Tetsuro. (2007) "Tissue engineering: a new frontier in physiological genomics" Physiological Genomics, vol. 32, no. 2, pp: 28-32.

Shoseyov, Oded; Levy, Ilan. (2007) "NanoBioTechnology: BioInspired Devices and Materials of the Future" Humana Press.

Tombran-Tink, Joyce; Barnstable, Colin J. (2007) "Retinal Degenerations: Biology,….....