Biology 103
2000 Third Web Report
On Serendip
Tissue Engineering
Nimia Barrera
Imagine a day when people with liver failure can be cured with implanted "neo-organs" made of liver cells and plastic fibers. Imagine a day when insulin-dependent diabetics will not have to take frequent insulin injections because they have semi-synthetic replacement pancreases. A place in time when kidney dialysis machines are obsolete because anyone with damaged kidneys can be outfitted with new ones grown from their very own cells(1). Sound like science fiction? Not to scientists working in tissue engineering, a field of science that is barely a decade old.