Page 47 - Biotech Career Guide

BIOTECHNOLOGY CAREER GUIDE 47
mune system that fight off disease
— means that biotechnology com-
panies can activate a patient’s own
body to heal itself without need for
drugs. Fannin Biotech, for example,
developed a procedure for using
people’s own immune systems to
aid in recovery from respiratory ail-
ments, ranging from asthma all the
way to lung cancer.
Biocompatible implants
Human bodies protect themselves
by identifying and rejecting foreign
objects that get inside them. But
foreign objects — in the form of new
organs, tissue transplants, or drug
delivery systems — can serve im-
portant health purposes. Biolin Sci-
entific developed coatings and ma-
terials that can be used to make
many kinds of implants biocompati-
ble, tuned to an individual’s unique
body chemistry, to be welcomed
and integrated into the body as a safe,
normal part of its natural function.
Regenerating tissue
and body parts
When soft tissues like tendons and
ligaments break down, the body
cannot repair them on its own. A firm
called Embody invented a synthetic,
collagen-based soft tissue repair
material that provides a platform for
new soft tissue cells to grow and
spread and connect organically to
remaining healthy tissue. Then the
material dissolves into waste, leav-
ing nothing behind but the newly
grown, fully functional tissue.