Tissue engineers are working on a surprising breadth of of research, for all that most of the press focuses on major organs. Here, EurekAlert reports on early progress towards regenerative therapies for a damaged sense of taste: researchers "have succeeded in growing mature taste receptor cells outside the body and for the first time have been able to successfully keep the cells alive for a prolonged period of time. ... aims to help people who have lost their sense of taste from radiation or diseases. Identification of factors that promote taste cell regeneration and growth may provide new avenues of treatment for these patients. Researchers also hope to gain insight into how taste cell function changes across the lifespan, from infancy and childhood through old age."
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-02/mcsc-ltc022306.php