The Mass Production of Living Tissue

An anonymous reader sends in this moderately disturbing quote from Gizmodo: "I'm touching a wet slab of protein, what feels like a paper-thin slice of bologna. It's supple, slimy, but unlike meat, if you were to slice it down the center today, tomorrow the wound would heal. It's factory-grown living tissue. The company behind the living, petri-dish-grown substance known as Apligraf hates my new name for it: meat band-aid. 'It's living,' Dr. Damien Bates, Chief Medical Officer at Organogenesis, corrects me. 'Meat isn't living.' But no one argues with me that this substance is really just a band-aid. A living, $1500 band-aid, I should say. Apligraf is a matrix of cow collagen, human fibroblasts and keratinocyte stem cells (from discarded circumcisions), that, when applied to chronic wounds (particularly nasty problems like diabetic sores), can seed healing and regeneration. But Organogenesis is not interested in creating boutique organs for proof of concept scientific advancement. They're a business in the business of mass tissue manufacturing — and the first of its kind."

from discarded circumcisions

[markov_chain]

So when you rub your scars you induce swelling!

Yes but...

[Anonymous Coward]

how does it taste?

By 2012...

[Anonymous Coward]

...this tech will finally deliver fully realized COTS pornstar-branded vaginas. At which point the world will end.

New ending to that movie:

[Tablizer]

Soylent Green is Wankers!

Re:Yes but...

[Zarniwoop]

Pretty good with mustard, mayo and american cheese on white bread.

SOYLENT

[oDDmON oUT]

Band-Aid®?

Re:from discarded circumcisions

[Anonymous Coward]

So when you rub your scars you induce swelling!

I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg in regards to this technology's potential.

they have done this before with tragid results..

[drewsup]

The hospital in question was using disused foreskin to create eyelids for burn victims. Alas, they all turned out to be cock-eyed after the procedure!

Cannibalism

[AliasMarlowe]

Sounds really promising for those who want to be cannibals. Just grow it using samples from your tastier friends (or from yourself, for the ultimate: survivable self-cannibalism). The price might have to come down a little, of course, or it will remain an expensive delicacy.

Re:If ever I heard an argument

[Bentov]

I think that circumcision had been around a few years longer then this product. So you want people to be in pain longer and possible die instead of using some tissue that is going to be discarded anyway? I never understood why people are so against circumcision. If I could meet the doctor who did mine, I would shake his hand and say "Good Job, chicks love my cock"

Re:The story behind Apligraf

[Jeremi]

I am not sure why this item was introduced as "moderately disturbing". [...] The material is essentially a poly-pharmaceutical packaged in a living material. The raw materials come from donated foreskins.

Heh, I believe you have your answer.

Re:Science Fiction Reality

[aplusjimages]

hopefully that time will come soon and I imagine they would call it a "health pack" and put a big red cross on the cover of the box. Putting it on walls and inside crates would be very helpful.

Don't laugh...

[Slur]

...it's a real growth industry.

Re:Cannibalism

[Opyros]

"Auto-cannibalism is not the answer." — the Zork trilogy

Re:Modern Science at its best...

[joocemann]

Where's my flying car, then?

We're still trying to figure out how to make it run on coal.

Just what I've been waiting for!

[gravos]

Apligraf is a matrix of cow collagen, human fibroblasts and keratinocyte stem cells (from discarded circumcisions), that, when applied to chronic wounds (particularly nasty problems like diabetic sores), can seed healing and regeneration.

Finally, a band-aid made out of human penises!

Can't believe I didn't think of it.

Re:New ending to that movie:

[Penguinshit]

That's Moyelent Green.

Re:they have done this before with tragid results.

[Merls the Sneaky]

That's ok think of the foresight they'll have!