A Short History Of Tissue Engineering
The Times Online provides us with a fascinating look at the history of tissue engineering over the past decade, placing it the context of advancing understanding of stem cells and the young field of regenerative medicine. "Problem one: it takes a long time to grow something to order; and that may be time the patient doesn't have. Problem two: no one has yet cracked the problem of how to create a blood supply within larger tissue scaffolds. Problem three: there hasn't been enough money in it for commercial companies to drive the technology. ... scientists' attention has been diverted to creating tissue 'on site', rather than making body parts separately." The end goal is still to be able to replace age-damaged tissue with something as good as new.
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-1619130,00.html