Surgeons in Sweden have just confirmed the first successful transplant of a lab-grown human organ. The organ in question was a trachea (the windpipe leading to your lungs).
Scientists from London literally sculpted trachea tissue into an exact copy of the patient's from 3D scans, with two more airways budding off it. Once it reached Sweden it was bathed in the patients' stem cells.
And that is what made it so brilliant, the trachea was transformed by the stem cells into the patient's own tissue! No donor and no risk of rejection! Reportedly, the patient is recovering well and there weren't any post-surgery complications.
This is pioneering work, just think of all the good that could come from work like this. Need a kidney? A safe one gets grown for you. Lost loads of blood? No problem, we have whole vats of O negative.
Now if only religious folk would back off from stem cell research with their half-baked world views. I've meet people opposed to the idea of such research at all, regardless of where the cells are sourced. It's just too taboo, apparently. Don't they know most research currently involves animal cells? I was unaware the rights of an unborn rat was more important than human welfare.
And so ends my first real blog entry. I suppose I'm now one of those pretentious internet twats now, right?
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