March 21st, 2004
Building New Organs For Transplant
The Jewish World Review is carrying a good introductory article on the current state of the art in tissue engineering. As the author points out, a large number of people die waiting for organ transplants each year, although that is as much the fault of government regulation as it is of inadequate medical technology. A number of different approaches are underway to ensure that organs can be cultured on demand, including the use of biodegradable scaffolds, ink jet printers, and stem cells. There is a fair way to go yet, but the field is clearly advancing rapidly despite the damaging effects of regulation on stem cell research.