Growing Body Parts From Human Cells: "60 Minutes" VIDEO

An amazing step forward in medical science may be coming, according to this 60 Minutes report about the possibility of growing new body parts from human cells.

This new form of regenerative medicine will hopefully be used for serious medical issues that require treatment including transplants of organs and other surgery. Doctors believe it may not be long before these new organs can be produced. People who suffer from heart disease, problems with their ears, eyesight, bladder, kidneys and more could all benefit from this huge breakthrough.

Said one doctor, "the hope for the future is that if you do have a patient who has organ failure, you don't want that patient to die because you're waiting for an organ.People are dying every day on the transplant wait list. So the hope of the field is that some day we can provide replacement tissues and organs that can be used to help them survive."

growing body parts from human cells "60 minutes"
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It is called regenerative medicine and the goal is to help the thousands waiting for organ transplants and the hundreds of veterans who return from Iraq and Afghanistan horribly maimed. So far, researchers have created beating hearts, ears and bladders by manipulating cells in the human body into regrowing tissue. The hope is to one day profoundly change human lives. Dr. Anthony Atala runs the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina. You name the body part, chances are Dr. Atala is trying to grow one. "Currently at the institute we're working on over 22 different tissues and organs," Dr. Atala told 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer.

growing body parts from human cells "60 minutes"