Wonders of science

Lab-made organ implanted for first time

For the first time, a patient has received a synthetic windpipe that was created in a lab with the patient's own stem cells and without using human donor tissue, researchers said Thursday.

Previous lab-generated transplants either used a segment of donor windpipe or involved tissue only, not an organ.

In a laboratory in London, scientists created a trachea, which is a tube-like airway that connects at the voice box and branches into both lungs.

This sort of thing is amazing. And, as one quote put it:

"It's a beautiful international collaboration," he said about the recent effort that involved doctors and researches in Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. "If scientists and clinicians work together, we can help humanity."

Well, we knew it would happen sometime...

Mature Human Embryos Created From Adult Skin Cells

The aim was to prove it was possible to usher in the additional possibility of harvesting stem cells from a person's own clone so there would be no rejection of tissue. Stem cells were not harvested in this experiment, but the embryos grew to the stage where others would have been implanted. There were no plans to do this; the leader of the study described such a thing as 'illegal and immoral'.

But you know it's just a matter of time.

Wow

Scientists Cure Mice Of Sickle Cell Using Stem Cell Technique: New Approach Is From Skin, Not Embryos

Making stem cells from skin cells from diseased mice, the researchers used viruses to change the cell and replace the sickle-cell DNA with healthy DNA, then transplanted the cells back into the mouse, curing the disease. This could mean amazing things in the future.