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Girl gets trachea transplant - no doner

#1

Eriol

Eriol

This one is really cool. Girl gets a trachea transplant made from artificial materials, and her own adult stem cells:

http://singularityhub.com/2013/05/0...ered-trachea-treated-with-her-own-stem-cells/

They've done Trachea transplants before using cadaver tracheas, and then "stripping" them of cells (making a "scaffold" of sorts) and re-populating with the patient's adult stem cells. But this one is different in that the "scaffold" is fully artificial. They no longer need a donor at all, just time, and the patient's own cells. The rest is manufactured.

No anti-rejection drugs, ever. The biggest technical problem with fetal stem cells IMO, is that the patient is still on anti-rejection drugs forever, just like regular transplants. When using your own cells, no problem.

No donor (somebody else dying) required.

Can make for anybody (no donor match required).


This is really really cool IMO.


#2

Tress

Tress

This is the kind of stuff that makes me more hopeful for our future. That is truly amazing. Here's hoping that this particular avenue of research can grow into helping people with all sorts of injuries. Imagine a future like the one they mention at the bottom of the article, where organs can be grown and no donor is needed.


#3

PatrThom

PatrThom

Yes. Can't wait until this trickles down to the body modification community. I'm sure they'll think of many creative ways to use the technology.

--Patrick


#4

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

PatrThom said:
Yes. Can't wait until this trickles down to the body modification community. I'm sure they'll think of many creative ways to use the technology.

--Patrick
Click to expand...


#5

GasBandit

GasBandit

Wasn't this how the story behind Killing Floor got started?


#6

David

David

I can't wait to have an insurance-clone waiting on an island somewhere for me to need to harvest its organs!


#7

Eriol

Eriol

GasBandit said:
Wasn't this how the story behind Killing Floor got started?
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I've never seen or read anything called that, but how the hell could anything bad be associated with this? Explain please.


#8

GasBandit

GasBandit

Eriol said:
I've never seen or read anything called that, but how the hell could anything bad be associated with this? Explain please.
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The premise behind the PC game Killing Floor is medical science run amok, a geneticist driven insane by the death of his son creating a clone army using his dna of mutated more-human-than-human supercreatures which then proceed to lay waste to all of Britain.

Kinda like the movie version of "I am Legend" but with chavs.


#9

figmentPez

figmentPez

David said:
I can't wait to have an insurance-clone waiting on an island somewhere for me to need to harvest its organs!
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Kind of expensive to keep a full clone stored off-site. Much better to 3D print replacement organs as needed. Plus, the tech necessary for a full clone is much further off than 3D printed organs. We can already make bladders, ears, corneas and more. The list might include partial livers, I'm not sure. I imagine the list is going to grow pretty rapidly in the next decade or so.


#10

Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

figmentPez said:
Kind of expensive to keep a full clone stored off-site. Much better to 3D print replacement organs as needed. Plus, the tech necessary for a full clone is much further off than 3D printed organs. We can already make bladders, ears, corneas and more. The list might include partial livers, I'm not sure. I imagine the list is going to grow pretty rapidly in the next decade or so.
Click to expand...
God, it's like you don't even care about the possibility of making out with yourself.


#11

Officer_Charon

Officer_Charon

:unibrow:


#12

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Chad Sexington said:
God, it's like you don't even care about the possibility of making out with yourself.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure if I encountered a clone of myself we would be required to fight to the death.


#13

Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

Azurephoenix said:
I'm pretty sure if I encountered a clone of myself we would be required to fight to the death.
Click to expand...
Why can't it be both?


#14

figmentPez

figmentPez

Chad Sexington said:
God, it's like you don't even care about the possibility of making out with yourself.
Click to expand...
Despite reading Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov and other authors at a young age, the idea kind of creeps me out.

Give Me a Clone
By Randall Garrett and Isaac Asimov
(This parody is to be sung to the tune of "Home on the Range")

Oh, give me a clone
Of my own flesh and bone
With its Y-chromosome changed to X
And when it is grown
Then my own little clone
Will be of the opposite sex.

(Chorus)
Clone, clone of my own,
With your Y-Chromosome changed to X
And when I'm alone
With my own little clone
We will both think of nothing but sex.

Oh, give me a clone
In my sorrowful moan
A clone that is wholly my own.
And if she's an X
Of the feminine sex
Oh, what fun we will have when we're prone.

(Chorus)

My heart's not of stone,
As I've frequently shown
When alone with my own little X
And after we've dined
I am sure we will find
Better incest than Oedipus Rex.

(Chorus)

Why should such sex vex
Or disturb or perplex
Or induce a disparaging tone.
After all, don't you see
Since we're both of us me
When we're having sex, I'm alone.

(Chorus)

And after I'm done
She will still have her fun
For I'll clone myself twice ere I die.
And this time without fail,
They'll be both of them male
And they'll ravage her by and by.

(Chorus)


#15

PatrThom

PatrThom

Chad Sexington said:
God, it's like you don't even care about the possibility of making out with yourself.
Click to expand...
I'm laying my money on you needing a new liver before you'd ever get an opposite of yourself.

--Patrick


#16

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Chad Sexington said:
Why can't it be both?
Click to expand...

Mutually exclusive? Perhaps your definition of making out is far more violent than mine? ;)


#17

Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

Azurephoenix said:
Mutually exclusive? Perhaps your definition of making out is far more violent than mine? ;)
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Really wish there was a shifty-eyes smiley to convey my mischievous sexual mores.


#18

Bowielee

Bowielee

Chad Sexington said:
Really wish there was a shifty-eyes smiley to convey my mischievous sexual mores.
Click to expand...


#19

Bubble181

Bubble181

I really don't see the appeal in sex with a changed version of myself. May be a lack of self-love or something, but I can think of prettier girls than me, girlified.

I'm more interested in a clone of my girlfriend. Threesome I'm allowed to have :p


#20

ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Chad Sexington said:
Why can't it be both?
Click to expand...
So it'd be something like this?



#21

Eriol

Eriol

I blame ALL of this on you Chad.


#22

Chad Sexington

Chad Sexington

Eriol said:
I blame ALL of this on you Chad.
Click to expand...
You're welcome.


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