Medicine's Cutting Edge: Re-Growing Organs

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 08:18:40 GMT  <== Science/Technology ==> 

Wyatt Andrews at CBS News - thanks to a powder his brother gave him, Lee Spievack grew back the tip of a finger he sliced off in the propeller of a hobby shop airplane. Soon, this technology may provide brand new internal organs, grown from your own cells. [gizmodo]

That powder is a substance made from pig bladders called extracellular matrix. It is a mix of protein and connective tissue surgeons often use to repair tendons and it holds some of the secrets behind the emerging new science of regenerative medicine.

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If this helped Spievack's finger regrow, Badylak says, at least in theory, you should be able to grow a whole limb.

Advances That Go Beyond Theory

In his lab at Wake Forest University, a lab he calls a medical factory, Dr. Anthony Atala is growing body parts.

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