SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
In the US alone, more than 1,400 people are waiting for a lung transplant - there simply aren't enough donor lungs available to meet the need. Soon, though, patients might have a new source for brand new lungs: the lab.
[...] To grow the lungs, the researchers first created four lung scaffolds. To do this, they removed all of the cells and blood from pig lungs using a mix of sugar and detergent. This left them with just the proteins of each lung - essentially, its skeleton.
Next, they placed each scaffold in a tank containing a special mix of nutrients. They then added cells from recipient pigs' own lungs to each of the scaffolds and let the lungs grow for 30 days. Finally, they transplanted the four lab-grown lungs into the four recipient pigs.
Within two weeks, the transplanted lungs had already begun to establish the robust networks of blood vessels they need to survive.
Source: Bioengineered Lungs Grown in a Lab Successfully Transplanted Into Living Pigs
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday August 03 2018, @05:06PM (4 children)
It's not the most complicated, but it's far from the simplest. Lungs are complex, but reasonably uniform, and they're using a pre-built scaffold, which handles a lot of the complexity. So they're probably a lot simpler.
That said, I'm not sure how the handled the muscle attachments...were they created with the lungs, or did they depend on the pig supplying those? The summary wasn't clear, but I'd guess that the muscles were supplied by the pig. This wouldn't work at all for a uterus.
When they can make artificial kidneys and eyes, then the uterus may be plausible. Maybe. But both of those can be created dependent on external muscle attachments. An artificially grown heart might be a better waypoint. That has the same kind of internal muscular structure (well, it's a different kind of muscle, but...) and it's sensitive to external control by nerves, and it's sensitive to endocrine hormones. And it's simpler than the uterus. But it's just a little bit critical. (Well, lungs aren't?)
The thing is, growing muscles is very different than growing most structures, because they need to be exercised while growing. There's bound to be some way to handle this (stimulated iso-metric exercises?) but I haven't read a report of anyone doing this yet. (Talk to the people building artificial steaks. They've got to deal with this problem.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 03 2018, @07:22PM (3 children)
artificial womb (aka uterus) != lab-grown uterus
The first is a machine that contains and grows a fetus. It does not have to be biological in nature.
It might look something like this [soylentnews.org] (images are included in the open access paper [nature.com]).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday August 03 2018, @07:37PM (2 children)
While your objection has validity, it's not exactly related to the article being commented upon.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 03 2018, @10:46PM (1 child)
It's what this thread is 'bout, and it was in your comment.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday August 04 2018, @01:19AM
As I understood the thread it was about artificial organs grown from cells and implanted in the body, with a side note about immune system rejection of foreign cells. An external device wouldn't fit.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.