Ethical stem cells and "printing a kidney"

Urologist Dr. Anthony Atala made news in January, 2007 with his report in Nature Biotechnology on stem cells found in amniotic fluid. These were ‘adult’ or non-destructive stem cells that could be turned into any sort of cell or tissue in the body.

Even before that, his lab was turning out engineered bladders, tracheas, and other organs were being transplanted into real, live patients.

(Dr. Atala was also the target of “pressure” by the Powers that Be who wanted him to promote embryonic stem cells.)

There’s a program called “TED” (don’t get lost over there!) that hosts big production conferences with talks from very big names and that should be getting more news coverage. “TED” held one of their shows in California in February of this year, in which Dr. Atala printed out a kidney on stage. He also outlines the many ways that his laboratory has been trying to produce tissues and organs for transplant in real patients.

This video is just over 16 minutes long, but it’s worth your time. There’s an organ-printing machine on stage and a video-within-a-video of one of the young men who received an engineered organ over ten years ago.