The ‘tantalizing’ plan to regrow soldiers’ flesh with pig cells
Just a few months into a clinical trial, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have made “swift progress” using pig cells to regrow sizable chunks of missing human flesh. The first soldier to enroll in the trial lost 70 percent of his right quadricep in an attack — but now the missing flesh is back. “What would have been an amputation is now somebody with a limb that works,” says Dr. Stephen Badylak. The Pentagon is pouring $250 million into regenerative medicine research, and Badylak’s pig-protein procedure could become standard practice after the trial wraps in two years.
