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The Military Plans To Regrow Body Parts

Posted by kdawson on from the anything-salamanders-can-do dept.

Ponca City, We Love You writes "The Department of Defense has announced the creation of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine to 'harness stem cell research and technology... to reconstruct new skin, muscles and tendons, and even ears, noses and fingers.' The government is budgeting $250 million in public and private money for the project's first five years, and the NIH and three universities will be on the team. The military has been working on regrowing lost body parts using extracellular matrices and scientists in labs have grown blood vessels, livers, bladders, breast implants, and meat and are already growing a new ear for a badly burned Marine using stem cells from his own body. Army Surgeon General Eric Schoomaker explained that our bodies systematically generate liver cells and bone marrow and that this ability can be redirected through 'the right kind of stimulation.' The general cited animals like salamanders that can regrow lost tails or limbs. 'Why can't a mammal do the same thing?' he asked."

5 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. One *little* thing by damburger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Being able to do something and being willing to pay for it are two seperate things. Just because the military is pioneering this research doesn't mean they are going to make it available for free to the young men and women they are responsible for maiming. They could just try and make a profit from it.

    Furthermore, 300,000 soldiers are coming back from Iraq with some kind of mental disorder. You can't grow a new happy mind in a petri dish.

    --
    If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
    1. Re:One *little* thing by somersault · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Petri dishes are too small - you need a decent sized brain jar if you want to grow brains!

      --
      which is totally what she said
  2. Two of these things are not like the others by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    blood vessels, livers, bladders, breast implants, and meat

    Really? I didn't think that people lost breast implants in accidents very often.

  3. tour of duty by sveard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    get shot up, get repaired, get sent back in

    good for morale :)

  4. Re:eeeeeeek! by jimicus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, what purpose does the military have in growing all natural 'breast implants'? (Note: I'm not a woman, so both the ladies on /. are free to flame me until I resemble a lightly toasted small buffalo.)

    Joke all you want, but lots of women are very upset at the prospect of losing all or part of a breast through cancer.

    It's not a particularly big leap to apply such concern to losing part of a breast through injuries sustained in combat. And breasts were invented for reasons other than "To give /.'ers something to furiously fwap over", y'know.

    In which case, being able to regrow them could prove very helpful for morale amongst injured female soldiers.