Machine wasted, says inventor

Press, 25 August 1986, Page 2

Machine wasted, says inventor

PA Wellington An advance in keeping tissue alive was languishing in a Wellington laboratory because no-one was willing to fund its manufacture, its inventor said.

A Victoria University neurophysiologist, Dr Douglas Rees, created the res-del perfusion bath in 1984.

The special machine, used with a saline solution he developed in 1978, was capable of keeping organ tissue alive for significantly longer than other methods, which had not changed much since their invention 30 years ago, Dr Rees said.

The system could be used on tissue of all kinds, whereas previous systems

had their limitations.

Its parts were modular and interchangeable, and the system was simple enough for first-year and second-year students to use unsupervised. Dr Rees said that Guys Hospital in London was impressed with a prototype sent there, and researchers throughout New Zealand also liked it.

It had big implications for human organ trans plants because it kept tissue alive much longer, and it also deserved support from anti-vivisection-ists, he said. Researchers could use the hearts of 10 mice in experimental work that previously would have needed 100, because the organs could be kept alive

for up to 10 days. However, Dr Rees said he was having trouble finding backing to get the machine into production. Six companies throughout the world showed interest in marketing the finished product, and Green Lane Hospital said the system could be a boon to heart-transplant technology, he said.

But a deal he lined up with an American instrument manufacturer fell through, and a marketing survey he arranged was not properly done, he said.

The Development Finance Corporation funded development of a prototype of the machine to the tune of $40,000.