Great News for Tin Men Everywhere

The Wizard of Oz claimed that "Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable." Scientists at the University of Minnesota have, however, come closer to creating a heart from scratch. The Times Online reports that a new heart has been grown using stem cells and the protein skeleton of a donor heart.

In the future, instead of transplanting organs from donors to patients, the donated organs could be used as a blueprint to create new organs that carry no risk of rejection from the patient's immune system. Of course, doctors could also use this research to learn how to build their own protein skeletons, and grow new organs using only synthetic proteins and skin cells from the patient.

(Via The Speculist)