The windpipe transplanted into a terminal cancer patient in Sweden is garnering much buzz – and small wonder. The surgery marks the first time a trachea grown from a patient's stem cells and seeded onto a synthetic, rather than a donor, structure has been transplanted in a human. And it saved a 36-year-old man's life.
The trachea isn't the first organ born in a lab—and experts say there are many more to come. We talked to Dr. Anthony Atala, a pioneer in the field who in 1999 transplanted the first of several synthetic bladders into young people with bladder disease.
Cheers,
Bob-C
