http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm

http://www.cmu.edu/oli/

http://ocw.usu.edu/front-page/Courese_listing

http://ocw.tufts.edu

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/index.php

http://ocw.jhsph.edu/topics.cfm

http://cnx.rice.edu

http://sofia.ocw.cn/gallery

http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/course-webs.html

http://www.alllearn.org

http://ci.columbia.edu/ci

http://www.berkleeshares.com

http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/lectures

http://ocw.nd.edu

http://www.gresham.ac.uk/default.asp

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http://ocw.fetp.edu.vn/home.cfm

http://ocw.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english

http://www.waseda.jp/ocw/index.html

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http://graduateschool.paristech.org

May 16 2008 the big incident of Haihong Holdings Ltd.

An indelible event in my life, I felt heartrending for myself, sorry and conscience-stricken for my family. I should say sorry millions of times to my beloved family members. I know that it's of no usefulness and it can not compensate them.

My bad character made me failure in my study, in my business, in all of my struggle career. What can I do in the future? To live without any changes? To be a defeated man? to be nothing and a disgusting man among my friends, among my family? or to live with making gradual progress day and day and make today incident engrave on my bones and heart.

I, as a man,a conscientious man, a brave man, should fix today's event in my heart. I should be a good man to my family, to my friends, to my advisor, to my country. So be a man full of endurance firstly, be a punctilious man follow. lastly be a courageous and resolute man.

By Michael Bucci
Success Correspondent - Every other Saturday

The first thing to keep in mind when managing your time is that it is more common sense than rocket science. What follows is a very basic way to manage your time properly:

building an efficient schedule

For example, at the beginning of the month you might have 7 days of scheduled meetings. Thus, you know from the onset that those 7 days have blocks of time already allotted, leaving less time in each day to accomplish your daily work. If you need to schedule additional meetings, try to schedule them on days where you have no previous engagements. That is, on days where you have more free blocks available. This helps minimize congestion and overlapping.

weekly & daily management

Once you have a bird's eye view of your month, you can calculate how many hours are left in each week and each day. The next step is to plan each day for maximum efficiency. To do this, you have to accurately estimate how long the tasks at hand should take, then block the proper amount of time in your schedule.

An example would be:

Block 1: 9:00am-11:00am    (meeting)
Block 2: 11:15am-12:00pm (take messages & return calls)
Block 3: 12:00pm-1:00pm (lunch)
Block 4: 1:15pm-4:00pm     (corporate training)
Block 5: etc.

The important thing to note is that each task has a defined block of time to allow for completion.

using time buffers

Another crucial aspect of time management is the use of buffers. Never schedule tasks too tightly together; this can cause overlap or tardiness. If you have one meeting scheduled to finish at 1pm, make sure to allot yourself a 15-minute block of time for a breather, before scheduling any other tasks.

In this manner, if the meeting goes into overtime, you won't be late for your next meeting or task. More importantly, you'll significantly reduce your stress level by not being in a constant rush.

Buffers are a way to build some slack into your schedule, but you must use them wisely. If you allocate too much buffer time you will likely lose out on quality work time. The trick is to learn how to use just enough buffer time to avoid conflicts between the end of one task and the start of another.

One last tidbit: don't be afraid to use a calendar, agenda or electronic organizer such as a Palm Pilot (which helps tremendously) to plan your time. A small investment in any of these items will pay off in spades if you use them properly.

Ultimately, it all comes down to how motivated you are to use your time as efficiently as possible. Where there's a will, there's a way!

Have you ever angrily stuffed the last doughnut down your throat? Have you ever failed a test in school because playing games is much more important than studying? By following these simple steps, one can build, strengthen, and maintain one's self-control.

Steps

• Do not get carried away with your desire to gain control. It is unhealthy to not eat. It is also not a good policy to give away things which are essential to your life such as a wedding ring.

Self-control is the key to success

I am a slow walker,but I never walk backwords.(Abraham.Lincoln America)

Nothing is impossible!

I will greet this day with love in my heart.

The man who has made up his mind to win will never say "impossible ". (Bonaparte Napoleon ,French emperor )

Never underestimate your power to change yourself!

Do what you say,say what you do

A man is not old as long as he is seeking something. A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams. (J. Barrymore)

You have to believe in yourself . That’s the secret of success.(Charles Chaplin , American actor )

While there is life there is hope.

One thing I know,that is I know nothing.(Socrates Greek)

One’s real value first lies in to what degree and what sense he set himself.(Einstein Germany)

It’s great to be great , but it’s greater to be human. ---W. Rogers

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope. -- Mattin Luther King

Don’t try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.

Victory won’t come to me unless I go to it. -- M.Moore

Man struggles upwards; water flows downwards.

Never give up, Never lose the opportunity to succeed.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is a powerful technique widely used for the surface analysis of materials. At low energy resolution it provides qualitative and quantitative information on the elements present. At high energy resolution it gives information on the chemical state and bonding of those elements. Further chemical information is available from the XPS valence band. Variation of electron take-off angle or sputter depth profiling can provide information on the vertical heterogeneity of samples, and imaging/microanalysis techniques allow determination of lateral homogeneity with resolutions of <50nm. Samples can be subjected to various treatments within the spectrometer vacuum system prior to analysis, eg. heating, cooling, scraping, cleaving, sputter cleaning, etc. XPS is commonly used for the surface analysis of polymers, coatings, catalysts, composites, fibres, ceramics, pharmaceutical/medical materials and materials of biological origin.

In the XPS technique, X-ray photons of a well defined energy (eg. Al K(alpha) radiation at 1486.7eV) impact the sample and eject photoelectrons from the atomic core level and valence levels. The photoelectrons travel only a relatively short distance (~3nm) in solids before impacting the lattice and suffering an inelastic collision. This makes the technique inherently surface sensitive. The ejected photoelectrons are energy analysed (usually by a combination of an electrostatic lens and an electrostatic hemispherical analyser) and strike an electron detector. A computer based data system scans the electron energy and accumulates counts of the detected electrons, hence generating the photoelectron spectrum. The data system is also used for subsequent manipulation of spectra, eg. elemental identification, quantification, curve fitting and plotting.

By Jeswald W. Salacuse phone 1-800-988-0866 or 617-783-7500
Permission to copy or republish:
phone 617-783-7587

Real Leaders Negotiate

Leverage three negotiation fundamentals to boost your power and persuasiveness as a
leader.
by Jeswald W. Salacuse

According to conventional wisdom, leading people requires vision, charisma, and a palpable self-confidence—but not negotiation skills. Negotiation is for use outside the firm—for instance, in cutting deals with partners, customers, and suppliers.

The conventional wisdom is dead wrong. Leadership frequently does require negotiation, and good leaders are invariably effective negotiators. After all, authority has its limits. Some of the people you lead are smarter, more talented, and in some situations, more powerful than you are. In addition, often you’re called to lead people over whom you have no authority, such as members of commissions, boards, and other departments in your organization.
To persuade people to follow your lead, you need to appeal to their interests, communicate with them effectively, and sell your vision—all of which are part of effective negotiation.

In this article, which draws on ideas I explore in greater length in my book Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich, and Powerful People (Amacom, 2005), I will show you how to increase your ability to leverage three key aspects of negotiation—interests, voice, and vision—so as to improve your power and persuasiveness as a leader.

1. PRACTICE INTEREST-BASED LEADERSHIP

Why should the people you're supposed to lead follow you? If you believe that your charisma, your position, or your vision is reason enough, you’re in trouble. While these qualities may affect how others relate to you, they won't compel them to follow you. People follow leaders when they judge that it’s in their best interest to do so. Just as wise negotiators focus on the other side’s interests, effective leaders seek to understand and satisfy the interests of those they lead. By doing so, they can better achieve organizational goals.

Leaders’ failure to comprehend fully the interests of those they lead can have disastrous results. In 1985, Joseph Foran established Dallas-based Matador Petroleum Corp. to find and develop oil and gas deposits in the American Southwest. Through a series of shrewd acquisitions, Foran built Matador into one of the larger privately held petroleum firms in Texas. To raise capital, he gave investors seats on Matador’s board. With a 10% interest in Matador, Chairman and CEO Foran remained its largest individual investor.
In spring 2003, Tom Brown Inc., a publicly traded Denver-based oil company, offered to buy Matador for $388 million. Foran opposed the offer, which he felt did not account for Matador’s growth potential. At the board meeting to discuss the bid, Foran was astounded when the other directors voted to approve the sale. He realized too late that the other directors’ interests were not the same as his own.
Foran had the energy, talent, and time to build a company that would give him financial security in his retirement, which was still many years away. But most of the other directors were retired individuals who had been hurt by a falling stock market and declining investment returns. Their interest was to take the money and run— and that’s exactly what they did. Had Foran understood all this earlier, he might have been able to structure an arrangement that would have given the directors the cash they needed while still allowing him to keep control of his company.
Effective leaders realize that they need to know people as individuals to truly understand their interests. Some of your peers care more about shoring up their power in the short term than they do about their units’ long-term health. Some individuals care more about long-term career development than about compensation. When you understand where the other person’s true interests lie, you can then shape your messages and your actions to accommodate those interests in ways that will achieve your leadership goals.

2. FIND THE RIGHT LEADERSHIP VOICE
When the poet Walt Whitman wrote, “Surely, whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow,” he conveyed the notion that persuasive communication is fundamental to effective leadership. Whitman’s words also underscore the importance of shaping leadership communications to meet individual concerns, interests, and styles. When deciding how to communicate, recognize that the medium you choose reveals something about you and your relationship with the person you are trying to lead.

Suppose that you’re a company CEO trying to persuade your board of directors to support an ac-quisition. What if you sent each board member a detailed memorandum stating the terms and consequences of the deal? Intentionally or unintentionally, a generic memo could signal that you take members’ support for granted, that you place little value on their opinions, and that you, not they, are running the show.

Instead, you might personally visit each director to explain the acquisition’s importance. A face-to-face meeting shows the individual director that her support is important and that you respect her autonomy and judgment. What’s more, holding such one-on-one meetings will help you get to know your directors’ individual interests and concerns, structure arrangements that satisfy those interests and concerns, and still allow you to make the acquisition that you feel is important for the company’s future.

“As chairman, I thought I had been leading the other directors in the boardroom at our quarterly meetings,” says Foran, the Texas CEO who was outvoted by his board. “I should have been trying to lead them one-on-one outside the boardroom a lot more frequently.”

3. NEGOTIATE A VISION FOR THE ORGANIZATION
Organizations, large and small, look to their leaders to establish vision. Popular commentary on corporate leadership presupposes that a company’s vision comes from its CEO and that, without a strong CEO, the company has no vision. But that’s not necessarily the case. Members located throughout an organization have plenty of thoughts about what the organization is and should be. Thus, the challenge of setting a group’s course lies in forging a single vision out of the multiplicity of visions held by the group’s members.

Leaders at Goldman Sachs, the venerable investment-banking partnership, faced exactly this challenge as they sought to negotiate its transformation into a publicly traded corporation. In 1986, Goldman Sachs was a $38 billion business owned by more than almost 200 active and retired partners. While the partnership structure had insulated the company from the vicissitudes of the stock market and given the company a strong culture of teamwork, it had some signifi cant disadvantages, particularly an unstable capital base and an inability to grow by making acquisitions with stock.

Th e firm’s nine-person management committee thus recommended that Goldman Sachs become a corporation and sell its shares to the public. Over several meetings over several years, starting in 1986, the management committee failed to convince the partners. It wasn’t until 1998, when the firm’s two cochairmen engaged in one-on-one conversations with nearly all the firm’s 190 partners, that the partners voted to accept the recommendation.

As this example shows, the process of articulating a vision is one of negotiation—in particular, multilateral negotiation, which usually requires intensive, face-to-face coalition building.
Like a skilled diplomat, a leader—whether a corporate CEO or a department head—negotiates support from followers by appealing to their interests, communicating with each of them in the right voice and medium, and forging a single compelling vision that all can get behind. .

Jeswald W. Salacuse is the Henry J. Braker Professor of Law at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts Univer-sity and a member of the faculty of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. His latest book,
Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich, and Powerful People (Amacom, 2005), expands on the ideas presented in this article. He can be reached at MUOpinion@ hbsp.harvard.edu.
HARVARD MANAGEMENT UPDATE | JUNE 2007

In the aftermath of every "nonprofit mismanagement" news story is the question: Why didn't the Board do something? Yet the boards of the United Way of America, Covenant House and others did not do any less than most nonprofit boards. The reality is that most nonprofit boards are ineffective in their governing function. Only when gross mismanagement occurs does a failure at governance come to the fore.

The overlooked reason is that the prevailing "team" model for the relationship between boards of directors and their staff is only half of the story. "Team" members are understood to bring different skills and play different roles to support and build the organization, working toward common goals. But while board members should and do act as supporters and builders, they have another role to play as questioners and monitors of the organization. As part of the team, the board stands with their well-intentioned organization as it operates in a demanding world. In contrast, in their governing role, the board must stand outside the organization and hold it accountable to the public interest.

Both these roles--supporting and governing--are critical to effective work by nonprofit organizations. Rather than try to eliminate the contradictions and tensions of their governance role, boards must find techniques for strengthening their independence and creatively using this tension for the good of the organization and the purpose it was created to serve.

What is governance?

The two roles of support and governance encompass different tasks. In the role of supporters board members strive to ensure the success of the organization. Boards raise money, bring contacts and clout to the organization, provide special skills such as in law or accounting, and act as ambassadors to the community. The many books, articles and seminars on the subject testify to the emphasis on helping boards help--on strengthening organizations by means of board assistance.

The governance role, on the other hand, has as its goal protection of the public interest. Governance responsibilities for boards include selecting the top executive (the Chief Executive Officer) and assessing his or her performance, reviewing and authorizing plans and commitments, ensuring compliance with legal and contract requirements, and evaluating the organization's work.

The Paradox and the Challenge

The board-staff relationship is a paradoxical one. When acting in their governing role, the board must stand above staff and be the "boss." But when acting in their supporting role, board members act to support and assist staff-led work.

Some boards become so excited about their roles as governors that they mistake governance for close supervision of management and begin meddling in minor management affairs. In other cases, as boards govern more, they shirk their supporting role. The challenge is to fulfill both roles, not simply switch from one to the other.

In short, boards have some inherent limitations in their ability to govern, including lack of time, lack of familiarity with the field, and lack of material stake. These limitations have been supplemented by the sector's nearly exclusive emphasis on the board's supporting role and by a human tendency to avoid conflict. A first step towards an effective board is acknowledgment of the paradox, and the need to perform both functions equally well. A failure to govern as well as support is a transgression both against clients and the wider community.

Practical Ways to Strengthen Governance

Here are some practical ways to strengthen governance:

• Have auditors and program evaluators report to the board. Agencies frequently hire two types of independent evaluators: CPA auditors and program evaluators. But in both cases these independent professionals are typically chosen by staff (often with just a cursory approval by the board), report to staff, and work as partners to staff in the staff's relationship with the board. Instead, such evaluators should make their reports directly to the board and to the staff. Auditors should be selected by and report to the board or the board audit committee.
• Hire independent management evaluators. In addition to auditors and program evaluators, boards need unbiased sources of information about management as well. One of the most difficult tasks for boards is the evaluation of the CEO. On one hand a board can't interview staff about their opinions, but on the other hand, problems are created when a board obtains all its information from the person being evaluated. An independent evaluator might interview staff, and, for example, if there were several allegations of sexual harassment, would report to the board that such charges exist.
• Make governance an explicit part of meetings. Boards should affirm their responsibilities in both support and governance. Board agendas should be clearly marked "Governance Items," and "Supporting Items." Among the qualities we should seek and reward in board members are critical thought, discernment, questioning attitude. When someone raises an objection or concern, or votes against the majority, the board president should make a point of going up to that person and expressing appreciation for the seriousness and courage to make the point.
• Consider board stipends. To give a signal about the importance and seriousness of board work, we should take another look at the corporate practice of payments for board service. Much of the nonprofit sector has summarily dismissed such stipends: isn't the board supposed to raise money? Some large nonprofit institutions already pay board members $200/meeting, but smaller organizations could consider small stipends such as $15/meeting. Such stipends reimburse board members for expenses, and demonstrate visibly that the agency places a real value on board support and governance. (Some board members may choose to contribute their stipends back to their organizations.)
• Consider a paid secretary to the board. Local government councils and commissions often have their own staff, separate from the agency staff that reports to the Chief Administrative Officer. Boards of many nonprofits have far-reaching responsibilities, and board officers may not have personal secretaries they can assign to board support. A paid board secretary, perhaps working only a few hours a week, can act as the board's facilitator, reminder, educator. Duties might include: board correspondence, obtaining information from staff or others at board request, clipping from professional journals for the board, minutes and follow-up for the board, meeting arrangements, and helping new officers with their responsibilities. Having their "own" staff can help board members be better supporters as well as governors.
• Recruit governors. When recruiting, boards should seek members who are good governors as well as those who are good supporters: people who know clients as well as people who know philanthropists, people familiar with nonprofit management as well as those familiar with business, operational volunteers as well as fundraising volunteers, people who ask critical questions as well as people who cheer. A diverse board such as this will keep the agency rooted in the world it serves as well as in the world in which it raises funds. In many cases, governors and supporters may turn out to be the same people once governing responsibilities are recognized and valued as much as supporting responsibilities are.

(From The Nonprofit GENIE Copyright (c)1994-95 Support Center, 706 Mission Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA, USA 94103-3113. 415-541-9000. Distribution and reprinting permitted as long as this copyright notice is included. All Rights Reserved.)

By Elizabeth Stanton

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures tumbled on concern an emergency interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve will fail to halt a worsening global economic slowdown.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest oil company, and Barrick Gold Corp., the biggest gold producer, fell as crude and metal prices decreased. Bank of America Corp. declined after the second-largest U.S. bank said earnings dropped 95 percent.

S&P 500 Index futures expiring in March retreated 40.5, or 3.1 percent, to 1,284.8 as of 8:36 a.m. in New York after earlier slumping as much as 5.3 percent. The MSCI World Index fell 0.2 percent. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index added 1.5 percent after earlier dropping as much as 4.1 percent.

``People may see it as an extreme step and feel that it's a sign the situation is worse than they had anticipated,'' said John Carey, who helps oversee about $13 billion at Pioneer Investment Management in Boston. ``This will definitely wake people up who were thinking the economy was just fine.''

The Fed lowered its benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage point to 3.5 percent in its first emergency move since 2001. Policy makers weren't scheduled to gather on rates until Jan. 29-30.

``While strains in short-term funding markets have eased somewhat, broader financial market conditions have continued to deteriorate,'' the Fed said in a statement. The Federal Open Market Committee took the action ``in view of a weakening of the economic outlook and increasing downside risks to growth.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Stanton in New York at estanton@bloomberg.net

To really look at the difference between stocks and bonds you have to understand the basics of each. Definitions make up our world and help us with understanding, so here we go. In common parlance we can compare a company to a house. When a person buys a house, they have a deed, which is a legal declaration and description of the property. Stocks are like owning a portion of the deed for a company.

So, in a simple example, if a company has a book value of $100,000 and they want to sell 100 shares, the shares might be considered worth $1000 each. In exchange for the share, a shareholder, also known as stock holder, would be entitled to a share of any net profits the company makes. Using our simple example, each share holder may get 1% of the net profit as a return on their investment. If the company makes no money, there would be no return on investment (ROI). In the event of a loss, the company might be worth only $90,000 and the shares might then sell for $900. This is an overly simplified view, but this is for illustration purposes only.

Using the same scenario, if that same company wanted to raise money, but not sell shares, they might sell bonds. Generally a bond is considered a loan to the company. (Bonds are also issued by municipalities, from local governments to federal governments.) This loan might be that the company will sell you a $1,000 bond for $800 and the bond would be worth $1,000 when it matures (in 8 to 10 years typically.) During the maturing, the company also agrees to pay a fixed amount every six months. The fixed amount usually is tied to the current interest rates, but does not have to be.

So what are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these? Unless a company goes bankrupt, you are guaranteed to have a return on investment with a bond. They are more stable, predictable and safer investments. They also aren’t usually giving you large returns. Another disadvantage is that they are not liquid, and you can pay a penalty for cashing them prior to their due date. Stocks, on the other hand, can give you greater returns, but carry a higher risk with no guarantees. They are more liquid, so if you need to get to your money more quickly, there are no consequences like penalties, just the standard fees involved for your transaction.

In other words, a bond is like the tortoise and a stock like a hare. Remember though, sometimes it is rabbit season, and your hare may be scalped.

Normal advice given to investors is to have more money in the higher risk stocks while you are younger and to gradually shift to the more conservative bonds as you get closer to retirement.

History of the Stock Exchange

One of the biggest misconceptions is that the first stock exchange in America was the New York Stock Exchange. But those who think that this is true might be surprised to find out that the first stock exchange in America was actually in Philadelphia, PA, and it was founded in the year 1790. The very famous New York Stock Exchange was not founded until two years later, in 1792.

Another thing that you hear talk about with regards to the stock exchange is Wall Street. Sometimes people wonder how it got its name. That is actually a very interesting story. Back in 1653, a twelve foot stockade was built by the Dutch settlers to guard against British and Native American attacks. The sturdy wall stood for over 30 years, until 1685. At that time, the wall was torn down and a street was built in it's place - hence the name Wall Street.

The stock market has evolved greatly over the past few centuries. From its humble beginnings in Philadelphia, PA, to the New York Stock Exchange, which is known world wide, the stock market has grown in leaps and bounds. That's not to say that there haven't been problems. Most everyone has heard of the great stock market crash of 1929. There are now steps that the government has taken to prevent such a large crash from happening again, but that doesn't mean that the possibility still isn't there.

The stock market is a place where you can make a lot of money but you can also lose a lot of money as well. If you have decided that you want to try investing in the stock market, it's a good idea to do some research and get advice from people that you trust and who are already investing in the stock market. But be careful, because if you don't invest wisely you can lose a lot of money. Be wise with your investments and take the time to do your homework. This will help you to make the right decision when it comes to your investments.

Macroscopic assemblies of semiconductor particles, with dimensions in the nanometer range, permeated with a transparent conducting phase (nanoporous electrodes) show a useful behavior in applications such as photocatalysis and dye-sensitized solar cells. A fundamental event in dye-sensitized solar cells is the recombination of photoinjected electrons with acceptor species (ionic holes) in the electrolyte phase surrounding the nanoparticles. Intrinsic semiconductor surface states play an important role in this process, not only as electron traps but also as intermediate states for electron transfer to the electrolyte (interfacial recombination centers). To describe the electron lifetime of electron trapped at band gap surface states, the concepts developed in the early analysis of recombination processes in photoconductors, such as the demarcation level, are quite useful. However, in photoelectrochemical systems (dye-sensitized solar cell), holes can be identified with oxidized, electrolyte dissolved species so that a new statistical analysis of the interfacial recombination process, considering the distribution of fluctuating, electrolyte energy levels, is required. Moreover, since in dyesensitized solar cells the quasi-Fermi level for electrons, EFn / , controls both the photovoltage and the rate of electron transport through the porous network, it is of great significance to find a correlation between the traps occupancy and EFn / . We develop a consistent formulation that, fulfilling these requirements, allows to deal with an arbitrary distribution of band gap surface states. Our analysis, which is based on those physical parameters describing the probability of electron transfer among band gap surface states, the conduction band, and electrolyte levels, allows macroscopic recombination time constants to be defined. The model considers different mechanisms for the transfer of photogenerated electrons from the semiconductor to empty electrolyte levels: direct electron transfer from conduction band states, indirect transfer of electrons trapped at monoenergetic, deep surface states, and indirect transfer of electrons trapped at an exponential distribution of band gap surface states near the conduction band. The analysis shows the great influence of the distribution of electrolyte levels and band gap surface states on the electron recombination kinetics under open circuit conditions.

.......

Juan Bisquert,*,† Arie Zaban,‡ and P. Salvador§
Departament de Cie`ncies Experimentals, UniVersitat Jaume I, 12080 Castello´, Spain, Department of Chemistry,
Bar-Ilan UniVersity, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel, and Departament de Matema`tiques i Informa`tica, UniVersitat de
les Illes Balears, 07071 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
ReceiVed: May 2, 2002

ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2008) — University of Minnesota researchers have created a beating heart in the laboratory.

By using a process called whole organ decellularization, scientists from the University of Minnesota Center for Cardiovascular Repair grew functioning heart tissue by taking dead rat and pig hearts and reseeding them with a mixture of live cells.

"The idea would be to develop transplantable blood vessels or whole organs that are made from your own cells," said Doris Taylor, Ph.D., director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair, Medtronic Bakken professor of medicine and physiology, and principal investigator of the research.

Nearly 5 million people live with heart failure, and about 550,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States. Approximately 50,000 United States patients die annually waiting for a donor heart.

While there have been advances in generating heart tissue in the lab, creating an entire 3-dimensional scaffold that mimics the complex cardiac architecture and intricacies, has always been a mystery, Taylor said.

It seems decellularization may be a solution -- essentially using nature's platform to create a bioartifical heart, she said.

Decellularization is the process of removing all of the cells from an organ -- in this case an animal cadaver heart -- leaving only the extracellular matrix, the framework between the cells, intact.

After successfully removing all of the cells from both rat and pig hearts, researchers injected them with a mixture of progenitor cells that came from neonatal or newborn rat hearts and placed the structure in a sterile setting in the lab to grow.

The results were very promising, Taylor said. Four days after seeding the decellularized heart scaffolds with the heart cells, contractions were observed. Eight days later, the hearts were pumping.

"Take a section of this 'new heart' and slice it, and cells are back in there," Taylor said. "The cells have many of the markers we associate with the heart and seem to know how to behave like heart tissue."

"We just took nature's own building blocks to build a new organ," said Harald C. Ott, M.D., co-investigator of the study and a former research associate in the center for cardiovascular repair, who now works at Massachusetts General Hospital. "When we saw the first contractions we were speechless."

Researchers are optimistic this discovery could help increase the donor organ pool.

In general, the supply of donor organs is limited and once a heart is transplanted, individuals face life-long immunosuppression, often trading heart failure for high blood pressure, diabetes, and kidney failure, Taylor said.

Researchers hope that the decellularization process could be used to make new donor organs. Because a new heart could be filled with the recipient's cells, researchers hypothesize it's much less likely to be rejected by the body. And once placed in the recipient, in theory the heart would be nourished, regulated, and regenerated similar to the heart that it replaced.

"We used immature heart cells in this version, as a proof of concept. We pretty much figured heart cells in a heart matrix had to work," Taylor said. "Going forward, our goal is to use a patient's stem cells to build a new heart."

Although heart repair was the first goal during research, decellularization shows promising potential to change how scientists think about engineering organs, Taylor said. "It opens a door to this notion that you can make any organ: kidney, liver, lung, pancreas -- you name it and we hope we can make it," she said.

Researchers of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair team were assisted in their study by researchers from the University of Minnesota Department of Biomedical Engineering, who helped analyze data.

The research will be published online in the January 13 issue of Nature Medicine. The study was funded by the Medtronic Foundation Endowment and a faculty research development grant from the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Minnesota.