Story Created:
Jun 12, 2009 at 5:37 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Jun 12, 2009 at 5:37 PM CDT
A group of doctors and researchers in Europe make up the My Joint project. They appear to be on the verge of something revolutionary. Growing your own replacement parts for your body.
They are the same group that was first to grow a new jaw bone in the back of a cancer patient after his own had been surgically removed. You can see the jaw bone is depicted in this image. The technology uses a patients own cells to grow the part inside the patients body so it won't be rejected. Computer modeling and scaffolding helps the bone form correctly. Growth promoting agents along with the patients own stem cells are implanted as well. The jawbone was then transplanted back to the man's face and attached.
The group is now working to grow a finger joint and eventually the research may ultimately be used to grow more complex organs. You can imagine the wide sweeping implications this project has as it could allow us to someday grow our own body parts to fix ourselves.
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