I was reading a novel this past spring break that dealt with a lot of science fiction notions, like faster-than-light travel, intelligent alien species, and advanced medical technology. The only thing is, some of the medical technology in that book is happening today, and the line between science fiction and science reality is becoming blurrier.
There is no doubt about the possibilities this research holds. Something as serious as coronary disease could become as easy to treat as a case of strep throat. In the article, it seems like organ regeneration could be extremely simple: the man only had to sprinkle powder on the wound where he lost his fingertip, and in four weeks he had a brand new fingertip. For people with failing livers or kidneys, organ regeneration could give them fresh, functioning organs in a matter of weeks, rather than the possible years it might take to find a suitable donor. One of the biggest upsides is that the new organs would be grown from the patient's own cells, meaning that organ rejection would not be a concern and there would be no need for the many immunosuppressants usually required.
When I first saw the title of this article, the first word that crossed my mind was "ethics," and I wondered how many ethical lines this research would cross. Organ and limb regeneration is an evolutionary benefit we don't enjoy, after all, and one would think that we would have been one of the few animals that can actually do this (such as a gecko) if we were supposed to. After reading the article, I don't really think there are any new ethical issues that this kind of research presents. The only problem I could see would be the use of stem cells in growing limbs. But there has been much advancement in obtaining pluripotent and totipotent stem cells from non-fetal sources, so that again might not be a concern. When I wonder about the countless lives this kind of limb regeneration may help, I can't help but think it might actually be unethical to abstain from developing this technology to it's fullest.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
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2 comments:
I know this is in the developmental stages, but the potential this research has is incredible. There are so many people that could benefit from organ regeneration. A lot of people die every year waiting for new organs, and many others live their lives permanently disabled.
I would be interested to get some more details about how exactly this works, however. I know this is a popular news article and aimed at your general audience, but the tone sets off red flags of "too good to be true" in my mind. What are the risks? What setbacks have they run into while developing this technology? Do we have any concrete results from clinical trials? I think this research should definitely continue to be developed, but we as scientific readers should keep in mind the details.
This article truly blows my mind away. I read this and can't help but think of how much this research could change the entire health industry. Not only that, but i find it very interesting that such technological advances like this were never even dreamed of decades ago. Also this article really hit home for me because my grandfather has had multiple issues with his heart, and this article makes me wonder what life would be like if my grandfather could pay a certain amount of money and have a new full fucntioning heart.
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