Shots - Health News 4:52 pm Wed July 3, 2013  Scientists Grow A
Simple, Human Liver In A Petri Dish  Originally published on Thu
July 4, 2013 9:48 am  Japanese scientists have cracked open a
freaky new chapter in the sci-fi-meets-stem-cells era. A group
in Yokohama reported it has grown a primitive liver in a petri
dish using a person's skin cells.  The organ isn't complete.
It's missing a few parts. And it will be years --maybe decades —
before the technique reaches clinics.  Still, this rudimentary
liver is the first complex, functioning organ to be grown in the
lab from human, skin-derived stem cells. When the scientists
transplanted the organ into a mouse, it worked a lot like a
regular human liver.  "It's a huge step forward," George Daley,
from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, tells NPR's Rob Stein.
"There have been groups that have attempted to generate liver
cells, and that's been promising," says Daley, who wasn't
involved in the current study. "This is the first attempt to
regenerate the organ by m