Scientists in Boston are attempting to grow the arm of a monkey in a laboratory container.
The team is being led by a young Austrian surgeon and is hoping to create the world’s first primate “bio-limb” for a macaque following the successful growth of a limb for a rat.
The eventual aim is for the procedure to be used for human amputees, solving a persistent problem for patients receiving transplants in which their immune system attacks the new limb.
If the scientists, led by Harald Ott, can grow a new human limb using a patient’s own cells, transplant patients might no longer require a lifetime of immunosuppressive drugs, which leave them more vulnerable to other diseases. “This is science fiction come to life,” said Daniel