DEFEAT THE DEADLY VIRUS
Once viruses enter your system, it's up to your immune system to take them out before they replicate. Scientists are developing ways of manipulating immune cells to target dangerous intruders.
Once the game starts, the viruses will attack your character. Shoot each virus to destroy it!
START GAME
15
SECONDS
RESTORE YOUR NERVES
Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and ALS compromise many bodily functions and can lead to overall decline and death. Stem cells may hold the key to reversing such disorders.
Drag the neural stem cells below into your brain within 10 seconds.
10
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5%
PUMP NEW LIFE INTO YOURSELF
Your muscles and brain just don't seem to respond like they used to. But there may be a way to fix that. Recent studies suggest that a total transfusion of blood from a young person might turn our clock back years. Pump yourself up and rejuvenate your body.
Keep hitting the pump button until you reach 100 percent.
START GAME
10
SECONDS
HEAL THE BURN
Serious burns can lead to infections, disfigurement, disability and death. But a revolutionary method of treating burn victims with their own healthy skin cells can get them out of the hospital — and back to normal — within a week.
Click to spray new skin onto the wound to the left!
START GAME
10
SECONDS
DRAG TO THE RIGHT
PRINT A REPLACEMENT KIDNEY
Your kidneys have failed, organ donors are sparse and the waiting list is long. If you eventually do get a donated kidney, you must take immune-system-suppressing medicines to prevent your body from rejecting the foreign tissue. But one day, a 3-D printer might be able to crank out a fresh kidney made from your own cells. Quick, print yourself a new kidney!
Drag the printer head to the right to print all the kidney sections before time runs out.
START GAME
15
SECONDS
REBUILD THE BONE
Falls are one of the most common household accidents among the elderly and can result in injury, hospitalization or death. As we get older, our bones don't mend as easily as they used to. Replace your broken bone with a new, custom-built one instead.
Arrange the parts in correct order to complete your new bone.
START GAME
10
SECONDS
FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH IN A GEL CAP
Instead of drinking from a magical spring, we might one day rejuvenate by simply popping a pill.
Drag and drop the medicine to feed them to your character.
10
SECONDS
AGE
50
Every year, about 50,000 Americans are infected with HIV. One in six is unaware of their infection.
The immune system includes the lymphatic system, tonsils, thymus gland, bone marrow, spleen and white blood cells.
Stem cells are found in both early embryos and in some adult tissues. Fat cells can be converted into stem cells that produce bone.
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are the two most common neurodegenerative diseases.
Adults have about 10 pints of blood in their bodies, about 7 percent of their body weight.
The blood that you donate is sold on the open market. Hospitals pay more than $200 for a pint.
Every year, as many as 10,000 people in the United States die of burn-related infections.
Some serious burns aren't painful because the burn has destroyed nerves as well as the skin.
Every 20 minutes, someone in the U.S. is added to a kidney transplant list.
Current attempts at bioprinting have yielded organs that are able to live for a few months.
Among seniors, the femur is one of the bones most commonly broken in falls.
From 1996 to 2010, the rate of hip fractures declined significantly for both men and women. No one seems to know why.
Telomeres tend to be longer (less eroded) in people who engage in vigorous physical exercise.
The chemical NAD radically reverses aging in mice, and it could work on people, too, but at a cost of about $50,000 a day.
EXTENDED LIFE
SKIP WALKING
Reprogrammed cells: Scientists are trying to reprogram healthy human immune cells so that they can constantly secrete specialized antibodies for protection against specific pathogens, such as HIV.
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Extended Life
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Neural stem-cell transplants: Scientists once believed that brain neurons dying from injury or disease were lost forever. But in recent years they have been experimenting with replacing those with new neurons derived from neural stem cells — bringing new hope to patients with nervous-system diseases.
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Rejuvenated blood: Two teams of researchers have shown that taking blood from young mice and putting it in old mice rejuvenated old muscles and brains. Scientists believe this could lead to treatments for age-related disorders, such as Alzheimer's and heart disease.
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Spray-on skin: Doctors remove a postage-stamp-size piece of healthy skin from a patient and use an enzyme to dissolve the structures holding the skin cells together. With added growth factors, the mixture is sprayed onto the burn victim. The technology is currently being tested on wounded soldiers.
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Bioprinted organs: Human cells harvested from a patient’s body would be cultured into a sort of biological ink to be fed into a 3-D printer programmed to arrange the cells into a new liver, kidney or other organ. Fresh organs would be kept in bioreactors until they matured.
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Custom-built bones: A CT scan is used to build a computer model of a broken or deformed bone. Isolated from a fat sample, a patient’s own stem cells are grown on a scaffold to precisely fit the defect being treated. The process is currently being tested on pigs.
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Anti-aging pill: Scientists are trying to find a way to attack aging itself. Some groups are targeting senescent cells, which have stopped dividing and accumulate as someone ages. Others are looking at telomeres, which are specialized structures at the tips of chromosomes that get worn down as we age. When researchers re-lengthen them in aged mice, the old rodents begin to act young again.
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Extended Life
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