Bio-engineered penises are coming

[DetlefK]

http://io9.com/your-bio-engineered-penis-is-almost-ready-1644561572
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/05/laboratory-penises-test-on-men

Quotes from article:

"Penises grown in laboratories could soon be tested on men by scientists developing technology to help people with congenital abnormalities, or who have undergone surgery for aggressive cancer or suffered traumatic injury.

Researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, are assessing engineered penises for safety, function and durability. They hope to receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration and to move to human testing within five years.

Professor Anthony Atala, director of the institute, oversaw the team's successful engineering of penises for rabbits in 2008. "The rabbit studies were very encouraging," he said, "but to get approval for humans we need all the safety and quality assurance data, we need to show that the materials aren't toxic, and we have to spell out the manufacturing process, step by step."

The penises would be grown using a patient's own cells to avoid the high risk of immunological rejection after organ transplantation from another individual. Cells taken from the remainder of the patient's penis would be grown in culture for four to six weeks.

For the structure, they wash a donor penis in a mild detergent to remove all donor cells. After two weeks a collagen scaffold of the penis is left, on to which they seed the patient's cultured cells – smooth muscle cells first, then endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels."




What I don't get is why they need a donor-penis. Yoo's group at the Wake Forest Institute also works on bioprinting. They could custom-build the frame of a penis from scratch using bioprinted cartilage. Or they use a mouse:

[Warren DeMontague]

1. ***

[safeinOhio]

2. No mention of

size options.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. I think I'll stick with the one I've already got

Thanks anyway.

[MADem]

4. Gee, I am surprised it took them so long!

They've already done the esophagus, and the ear, haven't really gotten the heart/liver/kidneys quite down, but hey, they're gonna work on the penis! I guess the Viagra and Cialis has too many side effects, so it's a more logical effort to just swap out the toolkit, as it were!

I'm sure they'll charge a bundle for the procedure, and eventually they'll get so good at it that it will become a cosmetic procedure. Then we'll see operations to enlarge the male anatomy like we see so many women's cosmetic procedures today. Gossip columnists will report on movie stars swapping out their equipment like they report on a tummy tuck, liposuction, breast enlargement, or hair implants.

Sex sells. Those Madison Avenue guys were right. Science wouldn't be working on this so hard if they didn't see the potential for a chicken in every pot--a huge market for it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. More than sex, tho.

Lorraine Bobbit's husband might be cheered by this news.

Besides sex, lacking a penis for whatever reason makes it difficult to urinate normally.

Altho, as you point out, if the technology becomes common, I can see some guys wanting ...uhh....."augmentation" .

[MADem]

6. Sure. Like any procedure, it will start out being practical. It'll help people in need.

Face lifts and other elective plastic surgeries came about because battlefield doctors got very good at patching up people who were horribly maimed in wartime. They took these skills and civilianized them for people who wanted to look better.

This will start out therapeutic, and eventually transition into the range of "recreational" or at the very least "vanity."

Is it live...or is it MEMOREX?

[MFM008]

7. many of the guys ive known

Need as much help as science can give them.............................

[Ilsa]

8. This could be a blessing for transgendered women-to-men,

Couldn't it? And maybe sex reassignment surgery for men-to-women is next?

[loudsue]

9. More dicks. That's all North Carolina needs right now.

We've already been taken over by the tea party!