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Nov
20
At TEDMED, I witnessed video clips showing science I never knew was so advanced. Dr. Anthony Atala has been growing human tissue and organs, in a lab, for nearly two decades. He’s even printed kidneys from a cell-stuffed inkjet printer.
The footage below is from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, one of the world’s largest labs dedicated to regenerative medicine—a field interested in repairing or replacing human tissue so the body can self-heal.
This collection is sort of a greatest hits of Dr. Atala’s last 20 years of research (no, none of this was done overnight on a whim), though almost none of what you’ll see has left the lab for clinical trials. Karen Richardson, Sr. Communications Manager at the lab, walks us through the videos in the gallery below. Watch the clips, then scroll down for our Q&A with mad (but completely sane) scientist Dr. Anthony Atala.
Growing Organs – A Gallery of Videos
Interview With Dr. Atala
What can we do in organ growing/generation today?
Laboratory-grown organs and tissues are already benefiting patients today. For example, laboratory-grown bladders are being tested in children with spina bifida and adults with spinal cord injuries and will soon be tested in patients with bladder cancer. Tissue engineering technology has been used to repair narrowed urethras, the tube that empties urine from the body.
What will we be doing in 5 years?
We are currently working to engineer 22 different tissues and organs in the laboratory, including blood vessels, heart valves, bone, muscle, kidneys livers. Scientific progress isn’t always linear, so it’s impossible to predict how long it will take to reach our goals.
In 10?
In addition to tissue engineering, our lab and others are working toward cell therapies to benefit a variety of conditions, from diabetes to urinary incontinence and heart failure. There are many challenges to overcome—and the timeframe is impossible to predict—but we do see promise in these technologies.
In 20? (I know, totally nuts, but that’s what makes it so fun.)
I don’t know how long it will take, but I do foresee a future when organs will be available off-the-shelf, ready to “plug in” and replace injured or diseased organs. I believe we’ll have a boutique of technologies that will includes tissue engineering and cell therapies and doctors will select the ideal treatment based on the patient’s needs.
http://gizmodo.com/5402485/your-next-body-is-growing-in-a-lab-right-now
Comments
2 Responses to “Your Next Body Is Growing In a Lab Right Now”
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Growing human tissue in this manner is an insult to the Creator. Frankenstein, un-Godly activity.
Humans are electro-magnetic, designed with internal mechanism to self heal. Thousands upon thousands of electrical points in the human fingers and toes carry universal healing energy to every organ in the human body when so directed. This is a Human Birthright whose knowledge was stripped from the masses of humanity and replaced with allopathic drugs, surgery, psychiatry, etc. for mind control and material gain.
Ruth Long
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I think it amazing and wonderful cause not every body has the body to heal when bodys are far gone they can’t heal themselves and with this allow a person let say who has cancer has a second life I would rather let them have the choice of have a second chance at life then to die and be in so much pain it just inhuman in my book to let someone to die like that the goal of the doctors are to better thing to help suffers not to turn the world into some crazy lab these suffers has the choice no one pulling there arms . I think it just wonderful what the doctors are doing very good intentions
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