Correction appended

This biweekly feature explores the research of Northwestern’s science professors.

Can you trick cells? Can you make them grow as if they’re in the uterus, when really they’re in a petri dish? Or as if they’re in the pancreas, or the spinal cord, when they’re in a scientist-created tiny piece of scaffolding?

According to research led by Lonnie Shea, Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, you can.

Experiments have confirmed that the processes succeed in mice. For example, Shea created a womb-like gel to swaddle egg-containing follicles that went on to produce mouse pups after fertilization.* “We’re in the process now of saying, ‘Can we translate this result from a mouse?’ ” he said. “Can we make it work for people?”

In the right environment, a female’s egg can be preserved, fertilized and nurtured until it grows into a baby. The gel surrounding the egg prevents gravity from flattening the fragile follicle structure. It acts as a cushiony pillow, a protective cage and an instruction manual for the cells. “We’re trying to recreate the environment of the ovary as much as possible and provide all of the cues that are necessary for it to grow,” Shea said.

Human eggs are already being nurtured in the gel, though none have been fertilized. The procedure is offered as an experimental option for young female cancer patients whose chemotherapy may cause infertility.

“It’s still not completely resolved,” Shea said of the ethical dilemma surrounding the procedure. He remembers sitting in a meeting where “a reproductive endocrinologist would say, ‘I just don’t think this is right that we should give a woman with five percent chance of survival the chance to have a baby.’”

Scientists and ethicists also debate who deserves egg preservation. If cancer patients can save their eggs from the effects of chemotherapy, Shea said, what about a 20-year-old woman who wants to focus on her career until she’s older, then reclaim her egg later down the road?

Preserving and growing eggs in gel may involve complex ethical issues, but the process itself is technically simpler than growing cells to treat diabetes or repair the spinal cord: when dealing with eggs, all the action occurs in a dish, not in the body.

Another aspect of Shea’s research involves creating “scaffolds” that facilitate cell growth. These scaffolds are similar to the egg gel in that they provide the appropriate environment for cell growth, but they differ because they must be implanted in the body.

One of the scaffolds aids in the survival of islets, cells which are normally made in the pancreas. These cells control insulin production, which in turn regulates blood sugar and determines whether you’ll spike into energy hyper-drive or crash and crave a coffee. In diabetes patients, insulin production doesn’t work.**

Shea’s scaffolding provides an environment for proper production of islets. His research team inserted 3 mm scaffolds into diabetic mice and successfully reversed their condition. The scaffolding can also be inserted into the spinal cord, where it acts as a superstructure for the main tissue and leaves gaps for highways of neurons to form.

So what makes Shea’s scaffolding and tissue growth special? “People have grown skin. There’s been some success with cartilage, but taking things to follicles and islets, these are really new applications.”

Unlike skin and cartilage, which serve mostly structural, protective services in the body, islets, neurons and follicles are functional. “This has to respond to glucose in the blood and produce just the right amount of insulin,” he said, gesturing towards a picture of islets. He pointed to photos of follicles: “This has to grow to produce an egg that can produce every single cell in the body after it’s fertilized.”

“In the end, I think it’s fun. I think I wanted to become a professor because I wanted to keep learning and experiencing new things,” Shea said. When he came to work at Northwestern nine years ago, he had no extensive knowledge of reproductive biology. “You talk to people, you work with them, you read a lot.”

His research has required coordination with many scientists in other fields, from Northwestern and beyond. “They come with a certain set of skills, and I come with a different set of skills, and we’re able to bring those skills, talents together to really make something very unique happen.”

Sept. 28, 6:05 p.m.: * This sentence was reworded for clarification. ** The piece originally misstated what diabetes is.