Researchers Grow Living Tissue in Lab

Douglas B. Clark

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June 11, 2011

This post is presented by SBE, the Society for Biological Engineering--a global organization of leading engineers and scientists dedicated to advancing the integration of biology with engineering. NPR's Science Friday recently reported about researchers at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center who are growing living tissue in the lab. Using existing tissue from lab animals and stem cells, the researchers are growing heart and bone tissue as well as blood vessels. To learn more about what they're doing and how, check out the video below.

Does this research excite you or concern you?

Image: Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell, from Wikipedia

Comments

Every technological breakthrough these days seems to come with controversy. I personally find tissue engineering exciting. This is good news and another steps towards curing diseases such as cancer and alzheimer and improving the quality of patients' lives.

I agree that many breakthroughs do come with some controversy, but there's really no halting progress. It's important to talk about how new developments can be put to their best use and to discuss ethical issues upfront.

So true. Saw the rebroadcast of "Designing Life" on 60 minutes last night (a few months old, but saw the connection with this article here). http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/18/60minut... So my big question: Whose responsibility is it to ensure genetic engineering are put to ethical applications? Do we currently have enough checks and balances in place? And the hard question - how can we keep up if other places in the world have different ethical standards?