Summary: Scientists from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine are preparing to test lab-grown penises this week in an effort to help those who need it.
There is a team of scientists working at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine studying lab-grown penises this week. They will determine if the penises they grew in a lab can actually help people who need them.
This is not a breakthrough in elective plastic surgery, so men out there get that out of your mind right now. These penises are being grown to help men who have suffered traumatic injuries via war, accidents or were born with congenital abnormalities.
The team is led by Anthony Atala.
The penises are donor penises and would actually work without having to be pumped because they use the patient’s own cells. Atala describes the situation:
“You’re left with a mostly collagen scaffold – a skeleton if you like, that looks and feels just like the organ. Think of it like a building. If you remove all the furniture and the people, you’re still left with the main structure of the building. Then you replace the tenants with new ones. That’s the whole idea. It’s just that the building is a penis and the tenants are cells.”
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Image credit: Wake Forest