TEDMED 2009
Anthony Atala: Growing new organs
Filmed:
Readability: 4
1,913,459 views
Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs -- from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that "prints" human tissue.
Anthony Atala - Surgeon
Anthony Atala asks, "Can we grow organs instead of transplanting them?" His lab at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is doing just that -- engineering over 30 tissues and whole organs. Full bio
Anthony Atala asks, "Can we grow organs instead of transplanting them?" His lab at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is doing just that -- engineering over 30 tissues and whole organs. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
This is actually a painting
0
0
3000
00:18
that hangs at the Countway Library at Harvard Medical School.
1
3000
3000
00:21
And it shows the first time an organ was ever transplanted.
2
6000
4000
00:25
In the front, you see, actually, Joe Murray
3
10000
3000
00:28
getting the patient ready for the transplant,
4
13000
2000
00:30
while in the back room you see Hartwell Harrison,
5
15000
2000
00:32
the Chief of Urology at Harvard,
6
17000
3000
00:35
actually harvesting the kidney.
7
20000
2000
00:37
The kidney was indeed the first organ
8
22000
2000
00:39
ever to be transplanted to the human.
9
24000
2000
00:41
That was back in 1954,
10
26000
3000
00:44
55 years ago.
11
29000
2000
00:46
Yet we're still dealing with a lot of the same challenges
12
31000
3000
00:49
as many decades ago.
13
34000
2000
00:51
Certainly many advances, many lives saved.
14
36000
3000
00:54
But we have a major shortage of organs.
15
39000
4000
00:58
In the last decade the number of patients
16
43000
3000
01:01
waiting for a transplant has doubled.
17
46000
3000
01:04
While, at the same time, the actual number of transplants
18
49000
2000
01:06
has remained almost entirely flat.
19
51000
3000
01:09
That really has to do with our aging population.
20
54000
2000
01:11
We're just getting older.
21
56000
2000
01:13
Medicine is doing a better job
22
58000
3000
01:16
of keeping us alive.
23
61000
2000
01:18
But as we age, our organs tend to fail more.
24
63000
3000
01:21
So, that's a challenge,
25
66000
2000
01:23
not just for organs but also for tissues.
26
68000
2000
01:25
Trying to replace pancreas,
27
70000
3000
01:28
trying to replace nerves that can help us with Parkinson's.
28
73000
5000
01:33
These are major issues.
29
78000
2000
01:35
This is actually a very stunning statistic.
30
80000
4000
01:39
Every 30 seconds
31
84000
2000
01:41
a patient dies from diseases
32
86000
3000
01:44
that could be treated with tissue regeneration or replacement.
33
89000
4000
01:48
So, what can we do about it?
34
93000
3000
01:51
We've talked about stem cells tonight.
35
96000
2000
01:53
That's a way to do it.
36
98000
2000
01:55
But still ways to go to get stem cells into patients,
37
100000
5000
02:00
in terms of actual therapies for organs.
38
105000
3000
02:03
Wouldn't it be great if our bodies could regenerate?
39
108000
3000
02:06
Wouldn't it be great if we could actually harness the power
40
111000
3000
02:09
of our bodies, to actually heal ourselves?
41
114000
5000
02:14
It's not really that foreign of a concept, actually;
42
119000
3000
02:17
it happens on the Earth every day.
43
122000
4000
02:21
This is actually a picture of a salamander.
44
126000
3000
02:24
Salamanders have this amazing capacity to regenerate.
45
129000
4000
02:28
You see here a little video.
46
133000
2000
02:30
This is actually a limb injury in this salamander.
47
135000
4000
02:34
And this is actually real photography,
48
139000
2000
02:36
timed photography, showing how that limb regenerates
49
141000
3000
02:39
in a period of days.
50
144000
2000
02:41
You see the scar form.
51
146000
2000
02:43
And that scar actually grows out
52
148000
3000
02:46
a new limb.
53
151000
2000
02:48
So, salamanders can do it.
54
153000
2000
02:50
Why can't we? Why can't humans regenerate?
55
155000
3000
02:53
Actually, we can regenerate.
56
158000
4000
02:57
Your body has many organs
57
162000
4000
03:01
and every single organ in your body
58
166000
2000
03:03
has a cell population
59
168000
2000
03:05
that's ready to take over at the time of injury. It happens every day.
60
170000
5000
03:10
As you age, as you get older.
61
175000
3000
03:13
Your bones regenerate every 10 years.
62
178000
3000
03:16
Your skin regenerates every two weeks.
63
181000
3000
03:19
So, your body is constantly regenerating.
64
184000
2000
03:21
The challenge occurs when there is an injury.
65
186000
2000
03:23
At the time of injury or disease,
66
188000
3000
03:26
the body's first reaction
67
191000
3000
03:29
is to seal itself off from the rest of the body.
68
194000
3000
03:32
It basically wants to fight off infection,
69
197000
2000
03:34
and seal itself, whether it's organs inside your body,
70
199000
4000
03:38
or your skin, the first reaction
71
203000
3000
03:41
is for scar tissue to move in,
72
206000
2000
03:43
to seal itself off from the outside.
73
208000
4000
03:47
So, how can we harness that power?
74
212000
2000
03:49
One of the ways that we do that
75
214000
2000
03:51
is actually by using smart biomaterials.
76
216000
5000
03:56
How does this work? Well, on the left side here
77
221000
3000
03:59
you see a urethra which was injured.
78
224000
2000
04:01
This is the channel that connects the bladder to the outside of the body.
79
226000
4000
04:05
And you see that it is injured.
80
230000
2000
04:07
We basically found out that you can use these smart biomaterials
81
232000
4000
04:11
that you can actually use as a bridge.
82
236000
3000
04:14
If you build that bridge, and you close off
83
239000
3000
04:17
from the outside environment,
84
242000
2000
04:19
then you can create that bridge, and cells
85
244000
3000
04:22
that regenerate in your body,
86
247000
2000
04:24
can then cross that bridge, and take that path.
87
249000
4000
04:28
That's exactly what you see here.
88
253000
2000
04:30
It's actually a smart biomaterial
89
255000
2000
04:32
that we used, to actually treat this patient.
90
257000
2000
04:34
This was an injured urethra on the left side.
91
259000
3000
04:37
We used that biomaterial in the middle.
92
262000
2000
04:39
And then, six months later on the right-hand side
93
264000
3000
04:42
you see this reengineered urethra.
94
267000
2000
04:44
Turns out your body can regenerate,
95
269000
2000
04:46
but only for small distances.
96
271000
3000
04:49
The maximum efficient distance for regeneration
97
274000
3000
04:52
is only about one centimeter.
98
277000
2000
04:54
So, we can use these smart biomaterials
99
279000
3000
04:57
but only for about one centimeter
100
282000
3000
05:00
to bridge those gaps.
101
285000
2000
05:02
So, we do regenerate, but for limited distances.
102
287000
3000
05:05
What do we do now,
103
290000
2000
05:07
if you have injury for larger organs?
104
292000
3000
05:10
What do we do when we have injuries
105
295000
2000
05:12
for structures which are much larger
106
297000
2000
05:14
than one centimeter?
107
299000
2000
05:16
Then we can start to use cells.
108
301000
3000
05:19
The strategy here, is if a patient comes in to us
109
304000
3000
05:22
with a diseased or injured organ,
110
307000
2000
05:24
you can take a very small piece of tissue from that organ,
111
309000
3000
05:27
less than half the size of a postage stamp,
112
312000
3000
05:30
you can then tease that tissue apart,
113
315000
3000
05:33
and look at its basic components,
114
318000
2000
05:35
the patient's own cells,
115
320000
2000
05:37
you take those cells out,
116
322000
2000
05:39
grow and expand those cells outside the body in large quantities,
117
324000
4000
05:43
and then we then use scaffold materials.
118
328000
3000
05:46
To the naked eye they look like a piece of your blouse,
119
331000
3000
05:49
or your shirt, but actually
120
334000
2000
05:51
these materials are fairly complex
121
336000
3000
05:54
and they are designed to degrade once inside the body.
122
339000
3000
05:57
It disintegrates a few months later.
123
342000
2000
05:59
It's acting only as a cell delivery vehicle.
124
344000
3000
06:02
It's bringing the cells into the body. It's allowing
125
347000
2000
06:04
the cells to regenerate new tissue,
126
349000
2000
06:06
and once the tissue is regenerated the scaffold goes away.
127
351000
4000
06:10
And that's what we did for this piece of muscle.
128
355000
3000
06:13
This is actually showing a piece of muscle and how we go through
129
358000
2000
06:15
the structures to actually engineer the muscle.
130
360000
3000
06:18
We take the cells, we expand them,
131
363000
2000
06:20
we place the cells on the scaffold,
132
365000
2000
06:22
and we then place the scaffold back into the patient.
133
367000
3000
06:25
But actually, before placing the scaffold into the patient,
134
370000
3000
06:28
we actually exercise it.
135
373000
3000
06:31
We want to make sure that we condition
136
376000
2000
06:33
this muscle, so that it knows what to do
137
378000
2000
06:35
once we put it into the patient.
138
380000
2000
06:37
That's what you're seeing here. You're seeing
139
382000
2000
06:39
this muscle bio-reactor
140
384000
2000
06:41
actually exercising the muscle back and forth.
141
386000
4000
06:45
Okay. These are flat structures that we see here,
142
390000
4000
06:49
the muscle.
143
394000
2000
06:51
What about other structures?
144
396000
2000
06:53
This is actually an engineered blood vessel.
145
398000
3000
06:56
Very similar to what we just did, but a little bit more complex.
146
401000
3000
06:59
Here we take a scaffold,
147
404000
2000
07:01
and we basically -- scaffold can be like a piece of paper here.
148
406000
4000
07:05
And we can then tubularize this scaffold.
149
410000
2000
07:07
And what we do is we, to make a blood vessel, same strategy.
150
412000
4000
07:11
A blood vessel is made up of two different cell types.
151
416000
4000
07:15
We take muscle cells, we paste,
152
420000
3000
07:18
or coat the outside with these muscle cells,
153
423000
2000
07:20
very much like baking a layer cake, if you will.
154
425000
3000
07:23
You place the muscle cells on the outside.
155
428000
3000
07:26
You place the vascular blood vessel lining cells on the inside.
156
431000
5000
07:31
You now have your fully seeded scaffold.
157
436000
2000
07:33
You're going to place this in an oven-like device.
158
438000
3000
07:36
It has the same conditions as a human body,
159
441000
2000
07:38
37 degrees centigrade,
160
443000
2000
07:40
95 percent oxygen.
161
445000
2000
07:42
You then exercise it, as what you saw on that tape.
162
447000
4000
07:46
And on the right you actually see a carotid artery that was engineered.
163
451000
3000
07:49
This is actually the artery that goes from your neck to your brain.
164
454000
3000
07:52
And this is an X-ray showing you
165
457000
3000
07:55
the patent, functional blood vessel.
166
460000
3000
07:58
More complex structures
167
463000
2000
08:00
such as blood vessels, urethras, which I showed you,
168
465000
3000
08:03
they're definitely more complex
169
468000
2000
08:05
because you're introducing two different cell types.
170
470000
2000
08:07
But they are really acting mostly as conduits.
171
472000
2000
08:09
You're allowing fluid or air to go through
172
474000
2000
08:11
at steady states.
173
476000
2000
08:13
They are not nearly as complex as hollow organs.
174
478000
2000
08:15
Hollow organs have a much higher degree of complexity,
175
480000
3000
08:18
because you're asking these organs to act on demand.
176
483000
3000
08:21
So, the bladder is one such organ.
177
486000
3000
08:24
Same strategy, we take a very small piece of the bladder,
178
489000
3000
08:27
less than half the size of a postage stamp.
179
492000
2000
08:29
We then tease the tissue apart
180
494000
2000
08:31
into its two individual cell components,
181
496000
2000
08:33
muscle, and these bladder specialized cells.
182
498000
3000
08:36
We grow the cells outside the body in large quantities.
183
501000
3000
08:39
It takes about four weeks to grow these cells from the organ.
184
504000
3000
08:42
We then take a scaffold that we shape like a bladder.
185
507000
3000
08:45
We coat the inside with these bladder lining cells.
186
510000
4000
08:49
We coat the outside with these muscle cells.
187
514000
3000
08:52
We place it back into this oven-like device.
188
517000
3000
08:55
From the time you take that piece of tissue, six to eight weeks later
189
520000
3000
08:58
you can put the organ right back into the patient.
190
523000
3000
09:01
This actually shows the scaffold.
191
526000
3000
09:04
The material is actually being coated with the cells.
192
529000
4000
09:08
When we did the first clinical trial for these patients
193
533000
3000
09:11
we actually created the scaffold specifically for each patient.
194
536000
3000
09:14
We brought patients in,
195
539000
2000
09:16
six to eight weeks prior to their scheduled surgery, did X-rays,
196
541000
3000
09:19
and we then composed a scaffold specifically for that patient's size
197
544000
3000
09:22
pelvic cavity.
198
547000
2000
09:24
For the second phase of the trials
199
549000
2000
09:26
we just had different sizes, small, medium, large and extra-large.
200
551000
3000
09:29
(Laughter)
201
554000
3000
09:32
It's true.
202
557000
2000
09:34
And I'm sure everyone here wanted an extra-large. Right?
203
559000
3000
09:37
(Laughter)
204
562000
2000
09:39
So, bladders are definitely a little bit more complex
205
564000
3000
09:42
than the other structures.
206
567000
2000
09:44
But there are other hollow organs that have added complexity to it.
207
569000
3000
09:47
This is actually a heart valve, which we engineered.
208
572000
3000
09:50
And the way you engineer this heart valve is the same strategy.
209
575000
3000
09:53
We take the scaffold, we seed it with cells,
210
578000
2000
09:55
and you can now see here, the valve leaflets opening and closing.
211
580000
4000
09:59
We exercise these prior to implantation.
212
584000
3000
10:02
Same strategy.
213
587000
2000
10:04
And then the most complex are the solid organs.
214
589000
2000
10:06
For solid organs, they're more complex
215
591000
2000
10:08
because you're using a lot more cells per centimeter.
216
593000
4000
10:12
This is actually a simple solid organ like the ear.
217
597000
2000
10:14
It's now being seeded with cartilage.
218
599000
2000
10:16
That's the oven-like device;
219
601000
3000
10:19
once it's coated it gets placed there.
220
604000
2000
10:21
And then a few weeks later we can take out the cartilage scaffold.
221
606000
5000
10:26
This is actually digits that we're engineering.
222
611000
2000
10:28
These are being layered, one layer at a time,
223
613000
3000
10:31
first the bone, we fill in the gaps with cartilage.
224
616000
3000
10:34
We then start adding the muscle on top.
225
619000
2000
10:36
And you start layering these solid structures.
226
621000
2000
10:38
Again, fairly more complex organs,
227
623000
3000
10:41
but by far, the most complex solid organs
228
626000
3000
10:44
are actually the vascularized, highly vascularized,
229
629000
4000
10:48
a lot of blood vessel supply,
230
633000
2000
10:50
organs such as the heart,
231
635000
3000
10:53
the liver, the kidneys.
232
638000
3000
10:56
This is actually an example -- several strategies
233
641000
2000
10:58
to engineer solid organs.
234
643000
2000
11:00
This is actually one of the strategies. We use a printer.
235
645000
2000
11:02
And instead of using ink, we use -- you just saw an inkjet cartridge --
236
647000
4000
11:06
we just use cells.
237
651000
2000
11:08
This is actually your typical desktop printer.
238
653000
2000
11:10
It's actually printing this two chamber heart,
239
655000
3000
11:13
one layer at a time.
240
658000
2000
11:15
You see the heart coming out there. It takes about 40 minutes to print,
241
660000
4000
11:19
and about four to six hours later
242
664000
2000
11:21
you see the muscle cells contract.
243
666000
3000
11:24
(Applause)
244
669000
6000
11:30
This technology was developed by Tao Ju, who worked at our institute.
245
675000
4000
11:34
And this is actually still, of course, experimental,
246
679000
2000
11:36
not for use in patients.
247
681000
3000
11:39
Another strategy that we have followed
248
684000
2000
11:41
is actually to use decellularized organs.
249
686000
2000
11:43
We actually take donor organs,
250
688000
3000
11:46
organs that are discarded,
251
691000
2000
11:48
and we then can use very mild detergents
252
693000
2000
11:50
to take all the cell elements out of these organs.
253
695000
3000
11:53
So, for example on the left panel,
254
698000
2000
11:55
top panel, you see a liver.
255
700000
2000
11:57
We actually take the donor liver,
256
702000
2000
11:59
we use very mild detergents,
257
704000
2000
12:01
and we, by using these mild detergents, we take all the cells
258
706000
4000
12:05
out of the liver.
259
710000
2000
12:07
Two weeks later, we basically can lift this organ up,
260
712000
3000
12:10
it feels like a liver,
261
715000
2000
12:12
we can hold it like a liver,
262
717000
2000
12:14
it looks like a liver, but it has no cells.
263
719000
3000
12:17
All we are left with
264
722000
2000
12:19
is the skeleton, if you will, of the liver,
265
724000
3000
12:22
all made up of collagen,
266
727000
2000
12:24
a material that's in our bodies, that will not reject.
267
729000
2000
12:26
We can use it from one patient to the next.
268
731000
2000
12:28
We then take this vascular structure
269
733000
2000
12:30
and we can prove that we retain the blood vessel supply.
270
735000
4000
12:34
You can see, actually that's a fluoroscopy.
271
739000
2000
12:36
We're actually injecting contrast into the organ.
272
741000
3000
12:39
Now you can see it start. We're injecting the contrast into the organ
273
744000
4000
12:43
into this decellularized liver.
274
748000
2000
12:45
And you can see the vascular tree that remains intact.
275
750000
3000
12:48
We then take the cells, the vascular cells,
276
753000
3000
12:51
blood vessel cells, we perfuse the vascular tree
277
756000
2000
12:53
with the patient's own cells.
278
758000
2000
12:55
We perfuse the outside of the liver
279
760000
2000
12:57
with the patient's own liver cells.
280
762000
2000
12:59
And we can then create functional livers.
281
764000
2000
13:01
And that's actually what you're seeing.
282
766000
2000
13:03
This is still experimental. But we are able to actually reproduce the functionality
283
768000
4000
13:07
of the liver structure, experimentally.
284
772000
3000
13:10
For the kidney,
285
775000
2000
13:12
as I talked to you about the first painting that you saw,
286
777000
4000
13:16
the first slide I showed you,
287
781000
2000
13:18
90 percent of the patients on the transplant wait list
288
783000
3000
13:21
are waiting for a kidney, 90 percent.
289
786000
2000
13:23
So, another strategy we're following
290
788000
2000
13:25
is actually to create wafers
291
790000
2000
13:27
that we stack together, like an accordion, if you will.
292
792000
4000
13:31
So, we stack these wafers together, using the kidney cells.
293
796000
3000
13:34
And then you can see these miniature kidneys that we've engineered.
294
799000
3000
13:37
They are actually making urine.
295
802000
2000
13:39
Again, small structures, our challenge is how to make them larger,
296
804000
4000
13:43
and that is something we're working on
297
808000
2000
13:45
right now at the institute.
298
810000
2000
13:47
One of the things that I wanted to summarize for you then
299
812000
3000
13:50
is what is a strategy that we're going for in regenerative medicine.
300
815000
4000
13:54
If at all possible,
301
819000
2000
13:56
we really would like to use smart biomaterials
302
821000
3000
13:59
that we can just take off the shelf
303
824000
2000
14:01
and regenerate your organs.
304
826000
2000
14:03
We are limited with distances right now,
305
828000
2000
14:05
but our goal is actually to increase those distances over time.
306
830000
4000
14:09
If we cannot use smart biomaterials,
307
834000
2000
14:11
then we'd rather use your very own cells.
308
836000
2000
14:13
Why? Because they will not reject.
309
838000
2000
14:15
We can take cells from you,
310
840000
2000
14:17
create the structure, put it right back into you, they will not reject.
311
842000
3000
14:20
And if possible, we'd rather use the cells from your very specific organ.
312
845000
4000
14:24
If you present with a diseased wind pipe
313
849000
3000
14:27
we'd like to take cells from your windpipe.
314
852000
2000
14:29
If you present with a diseased pancreas
315
854000
3000
14:32
we'd like to take cells from that organ.
316
857000
2000
14:34
Why? Because we'd rather take those cells
317
859000
3000
14:37
which already know that those are the cell types you want.
318
862000
3000
14:40
A windpipe cell already knows it's a windpipe cell.
319
865000
3000
14:43
We don't need to teach it to become another cell type.
320
868000
3000
14:46
So, we prefer organ-specific cells.
321
871000
2000
14:48
And today we can obtain cells from most every organ in your body,
322
873000
3000
14:51
except for several which we still need stem cells for,
323
876000
3000
14:54
like heart, liver, nerve and pancreas.
324
879000
4000
14:58
And for those we still need stem cells.
325
883000
3000
15:01
If we cannot use stem cells from your body
326
886000
3000
15:04
then we'd like to use donor stem cells.
327
889000
3000
15:07
And we prefer cells that will not reject
328
892000
2000
15:09
and will not form tumors.
329
894000
2000
15:11
And we're working a lot with the stem cells that we
330
896000
2000
15:13
published on two years ago,
331
898000
2000
15:15
stem cells from the amniotic fluid,
332
900000
2000
15:17
and the placenta, which have those properties.
333
902000
4000
15:21
So, at this point, I do want to tell you that
334
906000
3000
15:24
some of the major challenges we have.
335
909000
4000
15:28
You know, I just showed you this presentation, everything looks so good,
336
913000
2000
15:30
everything works. Actually no,
337
915000
2000
15:32
these technologies really are not that easy.
338
917000
2000
15:34
Some of the work you saw today
339
919000
2000
15:36
was performed by over 700 researchers
340
921000
3000
15:39
at our institute across a 20-year time span.
341
924000
3000
15:42
So, these are very tough technologies.
342
927000
2000
15:44
Once you get the formula right you can replicate it.
343
929000
3000
15:47
But it takes a lot to get there.
344
932000
2000
15:49
So, I always like to show this cartoon.
345
934000
2000
15:51
This is how to stop a runaway stage.
346
936000
2000
15:53
And there you see the stagecoach driver,
347
938000
2000
15:55
and he goes, on the top panel,
348
940000
2000
15:57
He goes A, B, C, D, E, F.
349
942000
2000
15:59
He finally stops the runaway stage.
350
944000
2000
16:01
And those are usually the basic scientists,
351
946000
3000
16:04
The bottom is usually the surgeons.
352
949000
2000
16:06
(Laughter)
353
951000
4000
16:10
I'm a surgeon so that's not that funny.
354
955000
2000
16:12
(Laughter)
355
957000
1000
16:13
But actually method A is the correct approach.
356
958000
4000
16:17
And what I mean by that is that anytime we've launched one of these technologies
357
962000
3000
16:20
to the clinic,
358
965000
2000
16:22
we've made absolutely sure that we do everything we can
359
967000
3000
16:25
in the laboratory before we ever
360
970000
2000
16:27
launch these technologies to patients.
361
972000
2000
16:29
And when we launch these technologies to patients
362
974000
2000
16:31
we want to make sure that we ask ourselves a very tough question.
363
976000
5000
16:36
Are you ready to place this in your own loved one, your own child,
364
981000
3000
16:39
your own family member, and then we proceed.
365
984000
3000
16:42
Because our main goal, of course,
366
987000
2000
16:44
is first, to do no harm.
367
989000
3000
16:47
I'm going to show you now, a very short clip,
368
992000
2000
16:49
It's a five second clip of a patient
369
994000
3000
16:52
who received one of the engineered organs.
370
997000
2000
16:54
We started implanting some of these structures
371
999000
2000
16:56
over 14 years ago.
372
1001000
2000
16:58
So, we have patients now walking around with organs,
373
1003000
2000
17:00
engineered organs, for over 10 years, as well.
374
1005000
4000
17:04
I'm going to show a clip of one young lady.
375
1009000
2000
17:06
She had a spina bifida defect, a spinal cord abnormality.
376
1011000
3000
17:09
She did not have a normal bladder. This is a segment from CNN.
377
1014000
3000
17:12
We are just taking five seconds.
378
1017000
2000
17:14
This is a segment that Sanjay Gupta actually took care of.
379
1019000
5000
17:19
Video: Kaitlyn M: I'm happy. I was always afraid
380
1024000
2000
17:21
that I was going to have like, an accident or something.
381
1026000
3000
17:24
And now I can just go and
382
1029000
3000
17:27
go out with my friends,
383
1032000
2000
17:29
go do whatever I want.
384
1034000
2000
17:32
Anthony Atala: See, at the end of the day, the promise of regenerative medicine
385
1037000
3000
17:35
is a single promise.
386
1040000
2000
17:37
And that is really very simple,
387
1042000
3000
17:40
to make our patients better.
388
1045000
2000
17:42
Thank you for your attention.
389
1047000
2000
17:44
(Applause)
390
1049000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Anthony Atala - SurgeonAnthony Atala asks, "Can we grow organs instead of transplanting them?" His lab at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine is doing just that -- engineering over 30 tissues and whole organs.
Why you should listen
Anthony Atala is the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where his work focuses on growing and regenerating tissues and organs. His team engineered the first lab-grown organ to be implanted into a human -- a bladder -- and is developing experimental fabrication technology that can "print" human tissue on demand.
In 2007, Atala and a team of Harvard University researchers showed that stem cells can be harvested from the amniotic fluid of pregnant women. This and other breakthroughs in the development of smart bio-materials and tissue fabrication technology promises to revolutionize the practice of medicine.
Anthony Atala | Speaker | TED.com