Coming soon: Lab-grown genitals?
Atala’s lab in 2006 made the first full organ ever grown and implanted into a human – the bladder – and the rabbit penises were the first solid organs. A new bid from AFIRM caught his eye. It called for experts in rebuilding the lower abdomen, the genitals, the pelvic area and the bladder.
These injuries are among the least talked-about but among the most horrible affecting war veterans. The improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, planted by insurgents across Iraq and Afghanistan blow off feet, legs and arms, and they can especially damage the pelvic areas that are difficult to protect with body armor.
Atala’s lab is also working to make kidneys, muscle implants, and even to find ways to get fingers to regenerate on their own. (It has to do with waking up some very powerful DNA that goes to sleep soon after a fetus develops). AFIRM’s mission is to align labs like Atala’s with others around the country, getting them to collaborate on projects rather than compete. AFIRM currently funds around 50 research labs, including leaders such as the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Rutgers University, the Cleveland Clinic and Rice University.
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So there’s hope for Obama after all?
sharrukin on September 11, 2012 at 10:44 PM
Perhaps we can manufacture a set of balls for Republican congressional leadership?
vegconservative on September 11, 2012 at 10:45 PM
Good… send a pair to Washington.
princetrumpet on September 11, 2012 at 10:46 PM
Obama needs a spine.
hepcat on September 11, 2012 at 10:49 PM
What a country!!
CW on September 11, 2012 at 10:49 PM
Do they need a mold?
SouthernGent on September 11, 2012 at 10:53 PM
Didn’t South Park do an episode on this?
Punchenko on September 11, 2012 at 10:54 PM
New aisle at Wal-Mart: Body Shop
faraway on September 11, 2012 at 11:00 PM
Why would they want a fungus for? =)
portlandon on September 11, 2012 at 11:03 PM
I’ll take an even foot, please.
OldEnglish on September 11, 2012 at 11:04 PM
Wow. A whole nation of Ron Jeremys. Kind of like the Krell IQ-booster from Forbidden Planet!
Seth Halpern on September 11, 2012 at 11:04 PM
Even a set of Thatchers wouldn’t change anyone’s opinion of the Boy King.
BobMbx on September 11, 2012 at 11:14 PM
Probably not but at least it would make watching the little Prima Donna on TV less cringe-worthy.
sharrukin on September 11, 2012 at 11:19 PM
What an incredible nation we live in. Mideast savages burn down embassies and rip flags apart, Americans are figuring out ways to regenerate lost limbs and organs; it’s quite the juxtaposition.
Bishop on September 11, 2012 at 11:21 PM
FINALLY!
I know where I want to attach my second set.
Axe on September 11, 2012 at 11:25 PM
… just thought of a third site.
Axe on September 11, 2012 at 11:26 PM
If the cue baldness doesn’t work I know what to attach to my pate.
lexhamfox on September 11, 2012 at 11:27 PM
And they all grown up now and posting here as ABR.
bayview on September 11, 2012 at 11:29 PM
Rachel Maddeau first in line!
slickwillie2001 on September 11, 2012 at 11:36 PM
Saw this on the Cairo embassy walkback thread:
Maybe Obama can get into the lab’s trials?
malclave on September 12, 2012 at 12:13 AM
I’d like to place my order for a Dirk Diggler.
Odysseus on September 12, 2012 at 7:01 AM
I read her fb post this morning. She ripped O to shreds.
txhsmom on September 12, 2012 at 7:11 AM
Hey Romney campaign – place your order please !!!
jake-the-goose on September 12, 2012 at 8:15 AM
Now, when you tell someone to “grow a pair” it can be talken literllay.
mikewor on September 12, 2012 at 8:40 AM
Amen, Bishop, amen.
GWB on September 12, 2012 at 8:55 AM
They’re Real, and They’re Spectacular.
ToddPA on September 12, 2012 at 9:08 AM
Guy went into get a new a**, the lab grew one and it looked like Joe Biden.
albill on September 12, 2012 at 9:34 AM
Having read the entire article, it is a quite fascinating look at the cutting edge science of regenerative repair.
Obviously the tagline involves genitals, but they are also looking at replacing eyes, ears, hands, legs, feet, and repairing damaged spines. Later in the article they even talk about using this therapy to help people dying from Lou Gherig’s disease.
It is this kind of therapy that gives me hope. As the father of a child born with Spina Bifida, the idea of being able to re-grow the broken and frayed connections in my daughter’s spine so that she will be able to use her feet properly, go to the bathroom without the use of a catheter, run around and have fun, feel wet grass or warm sand between her toes, all the things we take for granted that she will not currently be able to do, is what gives me hope for her future.
I think we are on the cusp of an amazing new world where people no longer have to suffer with debilitating physical handicaps. In a few generations, we may actually look at “Handicapped accessible” as a relic of the past, because there are no handicapped people left. Obviously we have a long way to go before we get there, and some diseases such as Cerebral Palsy may not be curable for a very long time, but we are getting there.
Now we just need to figure out how to do it without the murder of innocent children (via abortion harvested embryonic stem cells). I want to live in a world where all life is respected, not a nightmare world where one class of people die so that another may live.
wearyman on September 12, 2012 at 9:56 AM