Stem cell research has become a very hot topic, both scientifically and morally. I ran across this item on stem cells that has an unexpected Brookfield connection.
A standard method for growing clusters of stem cells (embroid bodies) is called the hanging body technique. You place a few cells into a tiny chamber, let them float in a nourishing fluid (mmm, yummy!) and bump into each other. The start to grow and differentiate, e.g. generic stem cells start changing into specific purpose cells, such as organs. Every day you must change the fluid, a tedious manual task.
Professor Michelle Khine of the University of California - Merced specializes in microfludics. That's a new engineering field that attempts to create extremely small mechanical devices to perform some remarkable tasks. Dr. Khine decided to construct a tiny growth chamber for hanging cells that was shaped to make it easy to exchange the fluid. Normally constructing such tiny devices requires an elaborate photo-lithography machine, but the young professor had no research grant money. So, she improvised based on a childhood memory - Shrinky Dinks. She printed a pattern of the machine she wanted on the plastic sheet, warmed it up and the 3-D growth chamber (a biaxially pre-stressed thermoplastic sheet) formed up .
For those of you who don't know the story, Shrinky Dinks were invented by two Brookfield cub scout den mothers in 1973. Their names? Betty Morris and Kate Bloomberg. Yes, THAT Kate Bloomberg. They commercialized the product, selling the first boxes at the Brookfield Mall. Click here for the official Shrinky Dink web site.
I don't think this method will ever actually be used directly to create stem cell growth chambers, but it is a creative bit of research showing how simple materials can be adapted for life changing experiments. For more details, including a 7 minute video, see: "Shrinky-Dink Hanging Drops: A Simple Way to Form and Culture Embroid Bodies", Journal of Visualized Experiments,
