Skipping over the politics and posturing in this piece from PittsburghLive, we find this interesting timescale: "Among the consortium's partners are the McGowan Institute, the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Regenerative Medicine Foundation. The consortium's five-year goal is the creation of a fully functional finger." This is ambitious, but not out of the realm of possibility with the right level of funding. The capabilities of tissue engineers will accelerate greatly once a robust solution to the problem of blood vessels is widely accepted. Fingers are a place to start, but replacements for more vital organs are the path to extended healthy life spans through this field of medicine.
Link: http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/health/s_429815.html