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DailyDirt: Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me A Match...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Apr 14th 2016 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Sometimes extending a person's life requires an organ transplant, but it's not exactly easy to find a replacement organ -- especially when donors don't have spares. Medicine is getting better at growing some replacements, so maybe someday patients won't need to rely on other people dying to get a heart, liver, pancreas, etc.

The 2012 Nobel prize for economics went to Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley for their work on matchmaking solutions that have practical applications in finding kidney donors and pairing medical students with training programs. The organ donor marketplace has benefited greatly from marketplaces that don't depend on prices -- but still create fair exchanges. [url]
Why do some organs like kidneys and lungs come in pairs, but others like hearts and livers don't? If you're expecting a real answer to this question (other than dual organs are advantageous for survival in some cases and not in others), keep waiting, but it's interesting to know that hearts in some animals, like amphibians, could be doubled, but they merge to form a single heart. [url]
Researchers are growing mini-organs, aka organoids, from stem cells -- small brains, eyes, livers and more. These organoid banks for semi-developed body parts could provide extremely good testing environments for pharmaceuticals and medical treatments, replacing lab rats or healthy volunteers. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

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Filed Under: alvin roth, lloyd shapley, medicine, organ donation, organ transplant, organoids, stem cells

16 Comments

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JoeCool (profile), 14 Apr 2016 @ 6:20pm

Hmm
It's not too hard to guess at why you only have one heart. It's a pump and a circulatory system. If you had TWO pumps, odds are good one would be stronger than the other. A stronger pump means a possibility of backflow on the weaker pump, and backflow on blood means blood clots, which means death. So having two hearts means an elevated chance at embolisms and less chance of surviving.
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- Anonymous Coward, 14 Apr 2016 @ 6:26pm
  
  Re: Hmm
  Except...
  
  http://mentalfloss.com/article/52337/3-creatures-more-one-heart
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  - JoeCool (profile), 15 Apr 2016 @ 10:20am
    
    Re: Re: Hmm
    3 out of how many thousands? Hmm? Thought so.
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- Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 14 Apr 2016 @ 7:13pm
  
  Re: It's not too hard to guess at why you only have one heart
  Be careful of the assumption that a biological system is in any way intelligently designed.
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- klaus (profile), 15 Apr 2016 @ 12:23am
  
  Re: Hmm
  Would Chev Chelios
  Count as having two tickers?
  Well, Doctor Who then?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2016 @ 2:30pm
    
    Re: Re: Hmm
    Top banana! Chev Chelios IS that balls out urban ranger!!! The Staph at that zenith before he started shagging RHW, going to Kew Gardens and being seen at Crufts. Are you doing a poem there Klaus or someting? Wow.
    
    Oh Wait, your not german are you?
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    - Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2016 @ 4:40pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Hmm
      Poem? What? It's called a haiku......
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    - Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2016 @ 5:30pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Hmm
      Please don't dis the Germans. Just, don't. History man
      
      Let's bask in the light that was Chev Chelios and ponder how he could survive a drop from 30,000 feet and land on a car and survive, then an hour later, after conquering electricity, and multiple kung-fu gangsters, shag Amy Smart in front of 50,000 people at a sports stadium, fight multiple dog owners AND their dog, dodge bullets and survive car crashes, then recover his heart by a roof-top battle from Chinese goons by means of a sex-maniac, drug-addicted, highly unsanitary, struck-off doctor.
      
      How? He's Chev Chelios, that's how.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2016 @ 4:48pm
    
    Re: Re: Hmm
    Chev Chelios, the man with two hearts, only his real one had been snatched by Chinese mooks leaving him with a mechanical battery operated one
    
    That said I can only remember Amy Smart----- can you blame me?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 15 Apr 2016 @ 5:15pm
    
    Re: Re: Hmm
    Haha Bro, got that in one............
    
    Sad fact - do you get that Crank was nearly a decade ago???
    
    Feelin' old man, feelin' old
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- Ninja (profile), 15 Apr 2016 @ 5:15am
  
  Re: Hmm
  I'm no doctor here but I can assure you that it does not happen with mechanical pumps if properly installed. You can go for added pressure or added flow depending if you install them in series or in parallel. And even then you can add valves to prevent backflow depending on your needs.
  
  So if there is backflow or something then the setup isn't correct.
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  - JoeCool (profile), 15 Apr 2016 @ 10:25am
    
    Re: Re: Hmm
    Exactly my point. We can tailor a mechanical system with multiple pumps by controlling everything about the system. But who or what is controlling biological systems so finely that they can prevent such problems? I doubt evolution works on such small scales as to alleviate problems, and I don't know about you, but no "higher power" has ever intervened in the lives of anyone I know.
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    - nasch (profile), 15 Apr 2016 @ 12:53pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Hmm
      I doubt evolution works on such small scales as to alleviate problems,
      
      What makes you say that? It works on a small enough scale to make geckos' feet stick to things, and that's a lot smaller than a heart.
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      - JoeCool (profile), 15 Apr 2016 @ 10:29pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Hmm
        Small scale meaning within an organism's lifespan, not size. Evolution takes many generations to work, but you don't have that time to adjust an unbalanced pumping system.
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        nasch (profile), 16 Apr 2016 @ 9:20am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hmm
        Evolution takes many generations to work, but you don't have that time to adjust an unbalanced pumping system.
        
        I'm not so sure, it seems like there are a lot of systems that would need to be fully in place before an organism could rely on them. Lungs for example. You can't wander around for long on land without lungs, and there's no time to evolve them in a single generation. Yet somehow animals evolved lungs and discarded their gills. I imagine the same sort of process could manage multiple pumps, and apparently it has:
        
        http://mentalfloss.com/article/52337/3-creatures-more-one-heart
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Fiddler on my roof, 14 Apr 2016 @ 7:25pm

Match box fire
Match Maker, Match Maker Make me a match find me a Fire, catch me a catch Match maker Match maker, look though your leak, and find me the perfect match

FIRE ... I Bring you to BURN...
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