Build it and they will come

Give the cells the scaffolding and they can organize themselves. More importantly, is that if you generate an organ from stem cells, the risk of a graft-rejection immune response should be greatly reduced. However, the substrate itself could still present a problem in HLA recognition. Nonetheless, it's still an awesome step forward.

Will I be there to transplant some lab-grown organs one day? Who knows? But growing organs in the lab was the whole reason I gave up my seat at the veterinary program in New Zealand and decided to go to medical school instead. This is awesome!

- Just a peasant

Photo of rat heart from excision to the removal of muscle cells by T. Mathieson from the University of Minnesota.