Monday, July 08, 2013

Health Care Good News, and Bad....

■ Japanese scientists have begun growing a liver:

"A group in Yokohama reported it has grown a primitive liver in a petri dish using a person's skin cells"

It's not a complete liver, but it's a big step forward in organ replacement. What will be very interesting is the race between the organic "growers" and the 3D printer folks.

■ Sadly, not all of these efforts work out:

"A toddler who in April became the youngest person ever to receive a bioengineered organ has died ...  implanted a bioengineered windpipe made from plastic fibers to which the girl’s own cells, taken from her bone marrow, were added"

There have been only a handful of these procedures done at all, and little Hannah Warren (who would have turned 3 next month) was the first here in the States.

[Hat Tip: FoIB Holly R]
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