We don't need no stem cells!

This is completely and truely awesome. Dr. Anthony Atala and colleagues at the Wake Forest University in North Carolina have managed to grow brand new bladders, using cells from the patients themselves, in a matter of weeks. These bladders were then transplanted into the respective patients and so far all the transplants have been successful.

Engineered organs In the new procedure, doctors extract muscle and bladder cells from a small piece of the patient's own bladder. The cells are grown in a Petri dish, then layered onto a three-dimensional mold shaped like a bladder. In a few weeks, the cells produce a new bladder, which is implanted into the patient. Within a few more weeks, the new bladder has grown to normal size and has started functioning. Atala is working to grow 20 different tissues and organs, including blood vessels and hearts, in the laboratory, according to the university. "We're not using any type of stem cell population or cloning techniques, but mainly the patient's own cells that we're using to create these organs and put them back into the patient," Atala told CNN. Because the bladders are grown from a patient's own cells, there is no risk of rejection, as in a traditional transplant.