Oh boy… do we have any volunteers? Engineered penis anyone?
Dr Anthony Atala, the mild-mannered head of bioengineering at North Carolina’s Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, is a world respected pioneer. Having successfully grown and implanted a human bladder in the late 1990’s and regenerated vaginas in adolescent girls in the 2000’s, one would wonder why he and his team are so anxious for two rabbits to mate! When they do, the coupling is received with more elation by the researches than the rabbits, who carry on blazè to the momentousness of the occasion.
Dr Anthony Atala (Source: Mens Health)
You see, if not for Dr Atala and his team, the male rabbit would not have been able to rise to the occasion as this furry fellow’s penis had been bioengineered, that the rabbit’s mated and subsequently produce offspring, proved that bioengineered penile tissue can probably be grown and implanted in humans. At present the treatment for men afflicted with deformities caused by accident or disease, is muscle reconstruction using thigh or forearm tissue and very crude mechanical prosthetic means are used for the full functioning of the organ.
Engineered Penis (Source: Global News)
Penile tissue is by far the most intricate and complicated tissue to bioengineer due to the density of cells and structural complexity. One of Atala’s collaborators- James Yoo found a way to build the intricate structure using a donor penis. An enzyme solution washed away donor cells, and then using cells from the recipient to grow a new penis using the collagen structure of the donor. The institute believes they will be ready for human trials by the end of the decade and should that prove successful, it may open the way for all sorts of organs to be cultured using a recipients own cells. That, I think is even more mind-boggling than a man growing penises in a lab!
Engineered Penis (Source: The Young Turks)
Engineered Penis (Source: Giphy)
