A Popular Science Article on Tissue Engineering
From the Australian: "Generating new body organs in the lab is the stuff of Hollywood fantasy. But judging by the latest experimental findings, science fiction may soon be science fact. ... Already, a bio-printer is cranking out three-dimensional tissues and Australian researchers are hard at work growing spare parts, with designer tissues proving their stuff in animal - and even human - trials. ... In animal experiments, [researchers have] made breast, fat, muscle and even pancreatic tissue that secretes insulin. They've also created tissue of a specialised immune system organ, the thymus, opening the way for multiple applications in immunology. That's because the thymus schools T-cells that help the immune system identify and fight infections and foreign cells. Using mice bred with no immune system, [researchers] found that after the mice received newly grown tissue they developed effective immune responses. ... the institute is engaged in a small number of human clinical trials with fat and breast tissue. The goal is to establish whether tissue can be created and used to replace tissue removed due to cancer. The trials have about six months to run. While creating living tissue is important, the larger aim is creation of functioning human organs."