The technology now exists to grow back a missing fingertip, and scientists are hopeful that in the very near future, limbs, arteries, and major organs, such as hearts and bladders, can be regrown from a patient's own cells. It's called regenerative medicine, and in theory, it could prolong life indefinitely.

Visions of human organs being grown in a lab, and body parts that grow back, sounds like the latest science fiction thriller, but it's happening now! The ability to regrow organs and tissues may soon revolutionize medicine, according to a story by Wyatt Andrews, of CBS news. When Lee Spievack's hobby airplane propeller cut off his fingertip, he called his brother, Alan, a research scientist, in the field of medicine. Alan sent Lee a special powder to sprinkle on the wound, and much to Lee's amazement the fingertip grew back. (We are not talking about sewing the fingertip back on. We are talking about regrowing the fingertip, including fingernail, vessels, blood and skin.) Amazing as it sounds, Lee has a new fingertip. This incredible potential to regrow organs and tissues, has made regenerative medicine one of the most exciting fields of research.

Dr. Steven Badylak, of the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine, explains that the powder sent to Lee was called extra cellular matrix-a mixture of protein and connective tissues made from pig bladders. Surgeons use it to restore tendons. It signals the body to start the process of regrowing tissues, and then helps it decide what type of tissue it should grow, depending on the area of the body where it is placed. Dr. Badylak believes that this could lead to the ability to regrow a missing limb. He is also preparing to use esophagus-shaped matrix material in patients with throat cancer, believing that the body will regrow new tissue.

When visiting the lab of Dr. Anthony Atala, at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, you might think you're in Dr. Frankenstein's world. Dr. Atala grows body parts in what he refers to as a "medical factory." He and his staff have 18 different kinds of tissue that have been created from the cell level. This tissue is growing, and includes whole organs, muscle tissue, and even the heart valve of a sheep. Their plan is to make body parts that can be implanted into humans. Regenerative medicine operates on the premise that every type of tissue has cells that are capable of regeneration, if programmed correctly. Dr. Atala is confident that it

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