Salamander-inspired therapy may aid injured vets (CNN) {regrow missing limbs?}

[eppur_se_muova]

By Larry Shaughnessy
CNN Pentagon Producer

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) -- Last week in an operating room in Texas, a wounded American soldier underwent a history-making procedure that could help him regrow the finger that was lost to a bomb attack in Baghdad last year.

Army Sgt. Shiloh Harris' doctors applied specially formulated powder to what's left of the finger in an effort to do for wounded soldiers what salamanders can do naturally: replace missing body parts.

If it sounds like science fiction, the lead surgeon agreed.

"It is. But science fiction eventually becomes true, doesn't it?" said Dr. Steven Wolf of Brooke Army Medical Center.

Harris' surgery is part of a major new medical study of "regenerative medicine" being pursued by the Pentagon and several of the nation's top medical facilities, including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic. So far nearly $250 million has been dedicated to the research.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/05/26/regrowing.body.parts/index.html

[Ganja Ninja]

1. Thank God for science. n/t

[FSogol]

2. Am I the only one who read enough comic books to think this is a bad idea?

:shrug:

[semillama]

12. no, but I think the next application after fingertips

would be penii.

[kestrel91316]

3. Hey, if we can benefit from leeches and maggots, two of my

VERY most favorite creatures :sarcasm: , then why not from salamanders?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. It will be interesting to find out

if the procedure works.

[PaganWitchFeminist]

5. So cool...

This is great news! As long as science persists in these daft and hateful times there is some hope for the future.

Next up, I'd like to see more good news about cloning. I've been waiting for the day when I can order a Ewan MacGregor clone with a 1 week shelf (bed) life. Then, a Samuel L. Jackson clone that comes in complete Jedi Master garb. Yummmm....

Better yet, I'd like to see holodecks become reality... I'd never have reason to leave my house.

[varkam]

6. Color me skeptical.

It'll be interesting to follow this, but I'm not exactly holding my breath. There was a news story about this a few years back (from the BBC I think) about a man who regrew a finger using this "pixie dust". Of course, he didn't - it was just terrible reporting.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. That experiment was done under very "uncontrolled" conditions --

and it was greeted with skepticism. Of course, I'm remembering a much more recent article, IIRC, so maybe we're talking about two different cases. I do remember it being BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7354458.stm

Google News (fingertip regrown) finds several articles where the skeptics sound off: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&q=fingertip+regrown+&btnG=Search

One such article is here (WARNING: graphic pic of injury, not for the squeamish) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-566886/Did-man-really-regrow-finger-magic-dust.html

You can see that most of the fingernail is still there, so I tend to side with the skeptics, though IANAMD.

If Lee's finger had regrown from below one of the joints, Goldacre would have been more impressed, since this would involve regenerating structures far more complex than just flesh and skin. But this, he says, is not what happened.

[varkam]

8. That's the thing with that case...

he didn't really "regrow" anything other than skin and nail, so it wasn't terribly impressive. I do believe, though, that it is the same case that I was talking about. I think that there may of been an older article, or I may just being going senile at an incredibly young age.

By the way, what does IANAMD stand for?

[eppur_se_muova]

9. I Am Not A Medical Doctor.

Lots of people on DU use IANAL(awyer) so I figured it wasn't too much of a stretch.

I almost wrote IANAD but then I realized ... I DO have a PhD!!

Precision trumps clarity.:D

[varkam]

10. Well cool!

What's your doctorate in, BTW?

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Chemistry -- I mostly hange in Science and E/E forums. nt

[varkam]

13. We don't need no stinkin chemists here!

Take your science and logic out of the health lounge!

:rofl: