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Grow Your Own Replacement Bones

Posted by michael on from the not-made-of-adamantium-unfortunately dept.

Tim writes "New Scientist reports on a German man who had a complete jaw transplant, after having his cancerous jawbone removed nine years ago. The twist? This jawbone was grown on his shoulder, using a titanium mold, bone marrow, and recombinant bone morphogenic protein." There's also a BBC story.

4 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. joking aside, by JUSTONEMORELATTE · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As creepy as this may be for those of us fortunate enough to still have all original parts, it's life-changing or even life-saving if you've lost a section of your skeleton (like this dude) for some reason.
    Profoundly cool work.
    --
    I always wanted an iPod how about you?

    1. Re:joking aside, by hpulley · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Too bad it sounds like this is just generic bone grown in a mold, not actually a grown jawbone which knows its own shape. While it is cool that they can do this, I hope it leads to more complicated things like joints being grown to the right shape later as right now we can't do implantable prosthetic wrists or ankles, just too complicated. I know, as I have had reconstructive wrist surgery due to bone loss from a bone tumor; as good a job as they did with metal, cement, etc., it is not and never will be 100% as good as the original. I'd gladly have a wrist growing on my back for a while if it meant being 100% as good as before.

      --
      $#!^ happens, but why does it always have to happen to me???
  2. Re:Some people still bitch by danratherfan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The poor guy hasn't had a jaw in 9 years. He wants to be able to eat like a normal person. I understand that you feel this makes him whining, but the whole point behind medicine is to restore normal function. Its not like he was asking for the doc to grow a laser on his head or something. It is understandable that he would feel this way. I am sure he would agree that what they had done for him was a major improvement in his life, though.

  3. Re:A perfect example by BillFarber · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Hopefully Bush will read this article and wake up.

    Except that Bush is against fetal stem cell research. This kind of stem cell research is supported by Bush. This case actually helps Bush's argument.