Lab-grown blood, artificial organs – the science transforming our health
by Robin McKie Science editor from on (#CMRB)
After the news that scientists have developed blood that can be grown in a laboratory, here are more discoveries that are redefining medicine
The news that scientists have developed blood that can be grown in the laboratory raised hope last week that a powerful weapon had been created to tackle disease. Ensuring that sufficient blood is donated to hospitals is a constant problem for medical services and any new source is to be welcomed, doctors acknowledged. In addition, the prospect that blood could be grown artificially from stem cells suggests a promising new approach could be taken in helping patients with thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia and other blood disorders.
As Liverpool University's Professor John Hunt - one of the developers of lab-grown blood - put it: "This will make a difference to an essential piece of healthcare in our lifetime."
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