Anthony Atala, PhD

Though the urethras of five boys were regrown from their own cells and implanted between 2004 and 2007, Anthony Atala and colleagues at Wake Forest University waited to report their success until now because they knew these small tubes might collapse in the short run. Interestingly, the task involved culturing both urethra and muscle cells and then assembling them on the inside and outside of a tube- shaped mesh scaffolding.  This work is part of an extensive program at WFU that has bioengineered more than thirty tissues. MORE

Image Credit:  Wake Forest University