This should piss off the fundies... laboratory-grown organs

[liberal N proud]

Seven children doing well with laboratory-grown organs

Bladders were grown from the children's own cells

April 3, 2006

Three boys and four girls treated at Children's Hospital Boston are the first people in the world to receive laboratory-grown organs. The children, aged 4 to 19, received bladders grown from their own cells and have now been followed for an average of almost four years. Their cases are reported in the April 4th online edition of the journal The Lancet.
"This is one small step in our ability to go forward in replacing damaged tissues and organs," said Anthony Atala, MD, who began working on the technology in 1990 as director of Tissue Engineering for the Urology Program at Children's Hospital Boston. Atala now directs the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

The process for growing each patient's organ began with a bladder biopsy to get samples of the outer muscle cells and the urothelial cells that line the bladder walls. These cells were grown in a culture in the laboratory until there were enough cells to place onto a specially constructed biodegradable mold, or scaffold, shaped like a bladder.

The cells continued to grow. Then, seven or eight weeks after the biopsy, the engineered bladders were sutured to patients' original bladders during surgery. The scaffold was designed to degrade as the bladder tissue integrated with the body. Scientists hope that laboratory-grown organs can one day help solve the shortage of donated organs available for transplantation.
"We have shown that regenerative medicine techniques can be used to generate functional bladders that are durable," said Atala, who also directs the National Regenerative Medicine Foundation.

http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom/Site1339/mainpageS1339P1sublevel198.html

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. It ain't natural!

Seriously, what a huge step forward. I guess bladders are pretty easy. Wonder when they'll move on to more complex organs?

[Tesha]

7. Wake me when they grow fundies new brains. ;-)

I could while away the hours,
conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain.
And my head I'd be scratchin'
while my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.

I'd unravel every riddle
for any individ'le,
In trouble or in pain.

With the thoughts you'll be thinkin'
you could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain.

Oh, I could tell you why
the ocean's near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I'd sit, and think some more.

I would not be just a nothin'
my head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry,
life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.

[RubyDuby in GA]

2. Obviously it will. They don't care about children once they're born, just

while they're in the womb.

[bluestateguy]

3. I think it's a brilliant idea

Millions of lives could be saved if this technology could expand. I suspect that I will need some new organs in thirty to forty years.

[VelmaD]

4. This is amazing...

and I hope the fundy whackjobs stop and think for just a second before they go off the deep end on this one. We're not talking about cloning a human being. The process doesn't use any stem cells. I don't see where they can possibly object to using the person's own cells to provide them a new organ. Just this once I hope they just declare this a miracle of modern science, thank "god" for the breakthrough, and move on.

[Beelzebud]

5. Maybe we can start growing new brains for the freeper Bushists..

[TahitiNut]

6. Hammond and Wurlitzer are furiously at work.

:silly:

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. That is so wonderful!