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Comments

[ariyanakylstram]

SCIENCE!

[autodidactic]

That kid who had his eyes eaten by that Dad on PCP... I hope that science can help him out, and maybe that bottom article is the way.

[gwynjudd]

So you could use this to create a whole person, right?

[curgoth]

"The idea is fairly simple: take an organ from a human donor or animal, and use a mild detergent to strip away flesh, cells and DNA so that all is left is the inner "scaffold" of collagen, an "immunologically inert" protein."

Sure, but you'd have to take apart another person first.

[maramala]

Well, you could always take parts from corpses, it's not like they're going to be needing them any more--

Okay, we're thinking too hard on this.

[gryazi]

This probably is a point, though. The ideal would be to injection-mold the scaffolds, spray on any helpful markers discovered through research like this, and let everyone grow a couple spares and keep 'em in the fridge (or on the coffee-table, quite a conversation piece)... But in the meantime, live organs are damn fragile and need to actually stay in functioning shape to drop-in; the collagen probably stays 'fresh' much longer, so a donor organ that's not quite ripe for transplant for one reason or another could still wind up saving a life.

Perhaps this'll also work out for 'close-enough' transplants from food animals... not really a pleasant thought, but we're certainly freeing up lots of potential scaffolds from them every day.

[maramala]

Oooh, bioware! My inner mad scientist approves of this.

[rhino_rex]

all of this is just going to keep Baby Boomers around that much longer.

[leolo]

Nightmare scenario