Scientists create a working animal limb in a lab

Re:Scientists create a working animal limb in a lab by elijahz on Thursday October 22, 2015 @03:53PM (#10434598)

For now it seems you would need a donor body to act as the "scaffolding" for your progenitor cells. Pessimistically, there may one day be a blackmarket for scaffolding cadavers with desirable features.

> While the progenitor cells needed to regenerate all of the tissues that make up a limb could be provided by the potential recipient, what has been missing is the matrix or scaffold on which cells could grow into the appropriate tissues.

> ... living cells are stripped from a donor organ with a detergent solution and the remaining matrix is then repopulated with progenitor cells appropriate to the specific organ.

I wonder if a person could also "upgrade" their body, or invent articulate organs with unique functions, such as printing a scaffolding for wings or a specialized muscle structure attached to the hip for opening beer bottles.

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Re:Scientists create a working animal limb in a lab by netcan on Friday October 23, 2015 @07:39AM (#10437944)

Perhaps they can strip back your own body to a scaffolding and regenerate the tissue. You spend a week as a brain-in-a-vat while your body gets regenerated then you start again.

Sci Fi gold.

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Re:Scientists create a working animal limb in a lab by fho on Friday October 23, 2015 @07:55AM (#10438004)

And by far not an uncommon trope.

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Re:Scientists create a working animal limb in a lab by cappsjulian on Thursday October 22, 2015 @07:40PM (#10435922)

How long before the black market would be obsolete (enough data to scaffold any desired feature), though? Doesn't seem so bad.

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