Stem Cells
The Globe and Mail: Coaxing bones to grow anew
We're seeing more and more of this kind of discovery: heart, bones, skin. It won't be long before we have something like islet cells of the pancrease that will actually cure type 1 diabetes. We'll also be able to grow replacement organs for ones that have been damaged, like the liver, kidneys, gall bladder, you name it, we'll be able to grow one from your own stem cells and replace the worn out one. The only problematic organ will be the brain, and what we'll probably end up doing with that is implanting stem cells cultured in the lab harvested from our own bodies into our brains in order to replace dying brain cells. That probably means some kind of upper limit to what we can store in there without some kind of external augmentation, or radical change to our genome.
We're seeing more and more of this kind of discovery: heart, bones, skin. It won't be long before we have something like islet cells of the pancrease that will actually cure type 1 diabetes. We'll also be able to grow replacement organs for ones that have been damaged, like the liver, kidneys, gall bladder, you name it, we'll be able to grow one from your own stem cells and replace the worn out one. The only problematic organ will be the brain, and what we'll probably end up doing with that is implanting stem cells cultured in the lab harvested from our own bodies into our brains in order to replace dying brain cells. That probably means some kind of upper limit to what we can store in there without some kind of external augmentation, or radical change to our genome.
Technorati Tags: stem cells, bone, regeneration
posted by David @ 4:29 PM
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