Lab-grown organ breakthrough

Report and vocabulary

In this jar, hope for many who need a transplant. In a Boston laboratory, a rat kidney has been stripped of its cells, leaving just this white scaffold. Then the organ was reseeded with fresh cells and put into another rat. It filtered the animal's blood and produced urine. The results are promising but human trials are still a long way off.

                                      http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23382-kidney-breakthrough-complete-labgrown-organ-works-in-rats.html

What do you think ?

1. Do you agree on bio-engineered human organs?

2. What springs to your mind when you hear the word "transplant''?
3. What came to your mind after watching the video?

4.  Do you think it would be a breakthrough on health problems?
5.  What do you think are the disadvantages of this bio-engineered organ.
6. Would you think that there will be a monster which will be created in the future?

Vocabulary

transplant

a new organ put into someone's body when the old organ fails

kidney

organ that takes away waste from the blood and produces urine

stripped of

had its parts removed

scaffold

structure that helps something to keep its shape

reseeded

here, had some new cells added, which multiply to fill the whole organ

Exercise

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from news reports.  Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.
transplant / kidney / stripped of / scaffold / reseeded
1. Madonna was said to have been angered that she and her entourage were __________ their VIP status on their way out of the country, the UK's Daily Telegraph reported. They had to line up with other passengers at the airport and were frisked by security officials, the report said. 

2. Scientists have developed a new way of generating stem cells which could boost research and drug screening. Edinburgh University has produced material that acts as a "tiny __________" to which cells can cling as they grow.

3. Carrying excess weight around the abdomen is linked to an increased risk of __________ disease, a study suggests.

4. George Best is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers to have graced the British game. But the Manchester United icon's lifelong battle with alcoholism led to drink-driving, bankruptcy, a liver __________ and eventually death, aged 59, in 2005.

5. "Even if the lungs aren't going to be resuscitatable, and you've tried everything you can, designer drugs, we aren't going to throw those lungs away. We are going to decellularize those lungs in a bioreactor and we are going to __________ it with your stem cells which we are already trying to do and we are going to grow you new lungs," he said.

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Answers

How did you do?

1

stripped of

2

scaffold

3

kidney

4

transplant

5

reseed