In a breakthrough discovery a decade in the making, researchers created an ear, muscle, cartilage, skull bone, and jawbone using a super high-tech printer. All of the body parts were then transplanted into mice and rats.
“The main goal is to scale up production of these tissues so they can be used in patients long-term,” said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and lead author of the paper published in Nature Biotechnology. The ear, cartilage, and bone all grew and developed blood vessels once transplanted. So far the experiments have only been done on mice and rats in the lab.
As soon as more tests are conducted and researchers receive government approval, the technology will be tested on humans.
(Source: NY Daily News)