ATTEMPTS to grow artificial organs in the lab have so far been thwarted, largely because building complex structures out of the necessary variety of cells is so difficult. But adapting techniques from the silicon chip industry promise to make the process much easier.
Until now, researchers have only managed to build relatively simple tissues such as cartilage and skin in the lab. To make these, they start with a biodegradable polymer “scaffold” roughly the same dimensions as the tissue they want, and plunge it into a solution of cells. The cells work their way into the scaffold, which is then…
