Scientists Grow Working Vocal Cord Tissue In the Lab

sciencehabit writes that tissue engineers have for the first time grown vocal cords from human cells. Science reports: "For the first time, scientists have created vocal cord tissue starting with cells from human vocal cords. When tested in the lab, the bioengineered tissue vibrated—and even sounded—similar to the natural thing. The development could one day help those with severely damaged vocal cords regain their lost voices. 'It’s an exciting finding because those patients are the ones we have very few treatment options for,' says Jennifer Long, a voice doctor and scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, head and neck surgery department, who wasn’t involved in the study."

And here are the first words it spoke

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Killlll meeeeee

Re:And here are the first words it spoke

[Anonymous Coward]

Killlll meeeeee

It could talk without a brain? There is finally an explanation for Rush Limbaugh!

Re:

[poetmatt]

That's only if you put the vocal cords inside his anus.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[show me altoids]

With autotune and all the other processing they do to pop music, we essentially have that now.

trans surgery progresses

[turkeydance]

one of the two things that current re-assignment surgery doesn't do is voice correction. boys still sound like boys. yes, training can obscure the obvious, but only so much. the other thing is hands. yes, boy hands stand out. i'm guessing that's next.

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[Kellamity]

There are several surgeries but their effectiveness isn't that great. An acquaintance went to South Korea for hers and she doesn't sound much different. But I'm sure plenty of trans women would pay top dollar for something that actually works.

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[wierd_w]

I always see the differences in facial bone structure. Male heads are just morphologically different from female heads. They just are.

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[mjr167]

This is the first use that leaps to mind? Not giving voices back to people that have lost them due to cancer, injuries, etc?

Voices for the Voiceless

[The Eight-Bit Link]

This is actually pretty awesome. People like Tsunku who have lost their voice to cancer or other diseases now have hope of regaining their voice. Now all we need is a surgery to actually put this to use

PFunk!

[Matheus]

George Clinton destroyed his voice years ago with a variety of bad habits... it's honestly a bit painful to hear him sing after so many years of that deep beautiful rich voice. If we can get George a new set of chords that would be amazing :)

Working vocal cords are a dime a dozen.

[Pseudonymous Powers]

What the world really needs now is more working ears, am I right?