# The World's first synthetic organ transplant



## twilyth (Jul 14, 2011)

OK, it's only a trachea, but hey, it's still a completely bio-engineered organ.  Honestly, I'd rather be a cyborg, but I'll settle for having spare parts until that happens. 








> Scientists built a polymer scaffold exactly the same size and shape as the patient’s trachea and two primary bronchi, using 3D scans taken of the patient as a model.
> Another group of scientists then seeded the artificial trachea with stem cells taken from the patient’s bone marrow. The cells were allowed to grow for two days, as researchers prodded them to differentiate into the various tissue types found in a healthy trachea.
> Surgeons then removed the patient’s cancerous trachea and implanted the synthetic replica during a 12-hour operation.
> Since the new trachea is built of the patient’s own cells, there was no risk he would reject the transplant—and thus no need for post-op immunosuppressant drugs.


----------



## PHaS3 (Jul 14, 2011)

That's pretty epic... the wonders of modern medicine


----------



## Funtoss (Jul 14, 2011)

WOW! this is amazing! i wonder how much more advanced they can get


----------



## Drone (Jul 14, 2011)

One day medics will use 3d printers to "print" organs, that's gotta be cool. They will use patient's own cells which they store in their db. I don't remember where I've read about this.


----------



## W1zzard (Jul 14, 2011)

does that picture suggest what kind of synthetic organs we might see next ?


----------



## lilhasselhoffer (Jul 14, 2011)

I have to say, it's good that they've finally gotten this out of the lab.

I did research on this crap years ago, where it was only theoretical.  The ideas have been there for years, but actually having a test case is amazing.  Science just made cancer its bi***.  I am so happy to be alive to read this!



As a side note, I wonder how long until people are growing large organs.  Secondary sexual characteristics are always fun...
*Dang, W1zzard got to the inuendo first.


----------



## The Witcher (Jul 18, 2011)

Yes.....I won't have to get married now.


----------



## Wile E (Aug 9, 2011)

Sweet. Spare parts are awesome.


----------



## de.das.dude (Aug 9, 2011)

this has already been done with teeth hasnt it? people have fake teeth in their gums all the time right?


----------



## Wile E (Aug 9, 2011)

de.das.dude said:


> this has already been done with teeth hasnt it? people have fake teeth in their gums all the time right?



Not with their own cells in them.


----------



## de.das.dude (Aug 9, 2011)

aah. but there was something about plating stem cells and growing them into teeth right?


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Aug 9, 2011)

I thought they already did this with heart valves?


----------



## Wile E (Aug 10, 2011)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> I thought they already did this with heart valves?



Not as far as I knew. I thought the heart valves still required anti-rejection meds?


----------



## LAN_deRf_HA (Aug 10, 2011)

http://www.newser.com/story/966/heart-valve-grown-from-stem-cells.html


----------



## Wile E (Aug 10, 2011)

Slightly different than this story (but still awesome). 

The trachea is actually artificial material seeded with stem cells, not 100% natural tissue like the valve.


----------



## Drone (Aug 10, 2011)

Only _developing embryos' stem cells_ can differentiate into the specialized cells ... just saying

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/stemcell/images/pluri.jpg


----------



## specks (Aug 10, 2011)

Amazing! 

Bet these cost a fortune


----------



## TheMailMan78 (Aug 10, 2011)

W1zzard said:


> does that picture suggest what kind of synthetic organs we might see next ?



Ill take two Anna Nicoles and one Fairuza Balk. Thank you and put it on my tab.


----------



## twilyth (Aug 10, 2011)

It's not really a 3-way (4-way?) if you're only using bits and pieces.  Just sayin'.


----------



## TheMailMan78 (Aug 10, 2011)

twilyth said:


> It's not really a 3-way (4-way?) if you're only using bits and pieces.  Just sayin'.



Ill build ma bitches like legos SON!


----------



## AphexDreamer (Aug 10, 2011)

If only we hadn't stopped our Stem Cell research for 10 years... Image how far ahead we would be now.

Still fantastic breakthrough.


----------



## TheMailMan78 (Aug 11, 2011)

AphexDreamer said:


> If only we hadn't stopped our Stem Cell research for 10 years... Image how far ahead we would be now.
> 
> Still fantastic breakthrough.



I agree. We might have been able to grow a politician that actually knew what he was talking about by now.


----------

