Science fiction writer Larry Niven had a series of stories focused on "organlegging," the practice of selling organs for transplants on the black market. The idea was that with demand growing faster than supply, a hefty profit could be made selling parts. It even resulted in some draconian societies building up banks of organs taken from petty criminals. I always thought this was nonsense, because we'd have better ways of getting organs before any of that came to pass.
It seems I was right. For the first time,
doctors grew replacement bladders for seven patients by culturing their own cells on a bladder-shapped scaffold. The result? A new, fully-functional bladder with no chance of rejection. Dr. Anthony Atala and his team, the group behind the procedure, are working on growing twenty other organs, including hearts, in the laboratory.
Apparently solid tissue organs present some new challenges. That's what "The Economist" Technology Quarterly said, anyway. Y'know, there's a lot in their TQ that would be very blogworthy over at "The Technoprogressive." I should get around to that.
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