I don't know what to make of this but thought it was worth posting. An Australian performance artist has grown an ear on his arm in the name of art. Next he plans to implant a microphone that will allow the ear to become functional in a way similar to a phone.

Source: skynews.com

Doctors will one day inject microbots into your blood to fight disease.

Australian scientests have produced electric motors tiny enough to power microbots through blood vessels in the body and the brain. The microbots would be guided by remote control where current medical catheters cannot reach, into small blood vessels to unblock clogged arteries.

Their tiny motor is less than the width of three human hairs. It will soon power medical nanorobots that can swim through tiny blood vessels into the brain. Such devices could enter previously unreachable brain areas, unblocking blood clots, cleaning vessels or sending back images to surgeons.

Read more: Unblocking Arteries with Nanobots

Dr. Leonel Fernandez Liriano, Professor of Medicine at Pontifical Catholic University School of Medicine (PCUSM), announced nine month follow up results for the first patient treated with engineered stem cells in a clinical study of primary pulmonary hypertension. The stem cells are extracted from patients' own blood and trained to become new blood vessels.

Zannos Grekos, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Cardiology at Nova Southeastern University and head of the international team that developed the stem cell treatment protocol, says, "It goes against traditional theory that we should try to fix the existing pulmonary vasculature, but we are generating new blood vessels with impressive results." According to Grekos, the clinical study is a collaborative effort amongst physicians at Regenocyte Therapeutic, a Florida-based stem cell clinic; researchers from TheraVitae, a biotechnology company in Tel Aviv, Israel; and physicians from Regenocyte's Dominican Republic division. The patient's base line and follow up testing is being conducted in part by Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida.

Read more: Pulmonary Hypertension Treated with Stem Cells

October 2008 - New Zealand has approved the clinical trials that would transplant insulindefine-producing pig cells into humans in the light of finding a breakthrough treatment for type-1 insulin dependent diabetes.

Read more: Transplanting Pig Pancreas Cells For Treatment Of Diabetes

A team of genetic engineers from San Francisco has grown a prostate gland using mice cells. The breakthrough offers scientists the possibility of creating a drug that prevents prostate cancer.

The researchers from the California biotechnology firm Genentech extracted cells from some prostate tissue in mice and grafted these to a mouse kidney. In just a few weeks, the tissue grew into a full-size human prostate gland.

The research, details of which appeared in the journal Nature, will help scientists understand how stem cells trigger prostate cancer leading to ideas to stop the disease.

Although a cultured prostate gland could be transplanted to patients to replace cancerous glands, the researchers did not intend to use the technology for surgery but rather for developing drugs against the disease.

Nov 2008 - The first artificial trachea (windpipe), created by using the patient's own stem cells, was successfully transplanted into a young woman with a failing airway in June 2008. The operation was carried out at the Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, by Professor Paolo Macchiarini of the University of Barcelona. The bio-engineered trachea immediately provided the patient with a normal functioning airway which saved her life.

Read more: New Trachea Grown From Stem Cells

Nov 2008 - The Western Canada Regeneration Initiative, with members from the universities of Calgary, Alberta and Saskatchewan, was awarded a $2.25 million team grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to study how best to heal and regrow nerves that have been damaged by injury or disease.

The team includes brain surgeons, electrical engineers, neurologists, and neuroscience researchers. "If we generate electrical signals on a microchip, we can guide nerve cells sitting on that chip to grow and connect along specific pathways. Our dream is to bypass scar tissue and put nerve communication back on track. That would mean a new life for people with brain or spinal cord injuries.” said Naweed Syed, PhD, professor and head of cell biology & anatomy, and research director, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine.

Read more: Regrowing Nerve Cells on Computer Chips

Nov 2008 - Organs from pigs could be widely available for transplanting into patients within a decade. The first organs such as kidneys suitable for transplanting are expected to be ready within three years and, if tests are successful, their use could be widespread by 2018.

Read more: Kidney Transplants from Pigs

Nov 2008 - ImmuneRegen's product Homspera has shown preclinical effectiveness in protection from radiation exposure, acceleration of wound healing, vaccine adjuvancy, and treatment of infectious diseases, such as influenza and anthrax.

Read more: Homspera by ImmuneRegen BioSciences Repairs Immune System