DARPA, the Pentagon's research arm, is funding stem cell research at the Worcester Institute of Technology to find ways to regrow large organs for war wounded
Soldiers injured on the battlefield will one day be able to regrow their limbs - if indeed the Pentagon continues to invest in research in this direction.
The US Department of Defense Research Agency (DARPA) recently awarded a $570 research grant to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts, under a one-year contract, to make it possible for a mammal, preferably a human, to regenerate large body parts such as a finger or even arm or leg.
This is the second phase of DARPA's "Restorative Injury Repair" project, which, according to the agency's website, will make it possible to achieve the restoration of a functioning multi-tissue structure in mammals", where, according to the university's press release, the intention at this stage is to restore muscles.
WPI's CellThera unit, which is the university's implementing company, previously won the first phase, in which, according to the institute's press release, "researchers were able to make progress in reprogramming skin cells from mice and humans to act more like stem cells that could create the early stages required to begin a process The regrowth of lost tissue."
"The goal is to replace real muscle that's been lost," said Raymond Page, a bioengineering researcher at WPI. "I appreciate that this is a rather ambitious goal."
Some types of salamanders can regrow lost limbs, and some lizards can regrow their tails. However, humans can only regrow the liver and even then, they need at least a quarter of the original liver to be intact for this to happen."
"The long-term goal of the DRPA program is to find ways to utilize the body's natural repair capabilities to heal wounds that include injuries to bones, muscles, nerves and soft tissues. The incentive for the program was to develop new treatments for soldiers who returned home wounded from the war. If this is successful, the process could also help in civilian applications. "That's why the best experts from CellThera, from WPI itself and the University of Massachusetts Medical School are sitting and to promote the program" said the project manager, Dr. Grant McGimpsey.
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Fresh and Rival:
In my opinion the amount limit and the time limit are related to each other.
They are budgeting 570 thousand to see where it is possible to reach in one year and if the results of this year show promise they will probably be ready to invest more.
I guess at the current stage there is no one who can tell them what exactly they want to do with 570 thousand dollars as well.
After a year it will become clear where the funds went and there will also be a clearer picture of where they want to direct them further and what the amounts are really necessary.
Ahem, this point was a bit of a racist reaction, wasn't it?
The budgeters did not think that a higher amount would be required to successfully grow organs from people with dark skin color
I agree with the first commenter, the amount seems a bit excessive, and I want to add - do you budget for only one year for such an ambitious project? After all, such studies take many years, how did they get to one year? Does it really make sense to them?
Is 570 thousand dollars considered a lot?, for such an ambitious and pretentious project?