From the people who, earlier this year, brought you lab-grown vaginas, introducing: the lab-grown penis. Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute For Regenerative Medicine are pretty excited at having been able to create functioning bionic wangs for those who've suffered abnormalities, or had to have parts of their penises removed. The concept was inspired by soldier's who've experienced debilitating battlefield injuries.
Currently, the scientists are testing the roboschlongs (technical term) for safety, function and durability and the US FDA have confirmed they'll be ready for human testing within five years.
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But how do you grow a penis? Well, Professor Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute explained to The Guardian that they'd have to be made from the cells of each individual, to avoid any rejection. You don't want your body attacking its own penis, that's for sure. To make sure that doesn't happen, cells are grown in a lab for six weeks and a donor penis is washed with detergent to remove all the cells, leaving a solid base for reconstruction. The cells from the patient are then added to this donor penis, which seems way too simple when put like that, but is actually pretty complicated. Obviously.
'My concern is that they might struggle to recreate a natural erection. Erectile function is a coordinated neurophysiological process starting in the brain, so I wonder if they can reproduce that function or whether this is just an aesthetic improvement,' says
Asif Muneer, a consultant urological surgeon at University College hospital, London. He's currently working on solving erectile problems.
The process in the laboratory is sort of similar to that of the lab-grown vaginas: cells were taken from the external genitals of the patients, grown in a culture, and then sewn into a vagina shape. Yes, sewn. Each faux vagina was tailor-made to each individual, and then a pelvic 'canal' was made so the new vagina could fit in, and then the cells began creating their own infrastructure which meant that, during testing, it was impossible to tell the difference between the native tissue and lab-engineered tissue. Result.
Isn't the world supercool?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.