[hprotagonist]

The first — and maybe only, or at least sufficient — use of tissue engineering at scale is not going to be growing organs for implantation, growing meat in a lab for human consumption, or anything quite that flashy.

The first one is going to be the ability to grow liver slices at scale for tox screening in pharma.

animal rights issues entirely aside: we spend entirely too much time and money killing a whole lot of mice all the while knowing perfectly well they’re barely semi-decent models for toxicology.

if I can fill the lab with constant flow vats of slices of liver, they’ll read out fast, they’ll be a massive savings in time and money, and they’ll give us much more accurate results.

[bflesch]

Sounds like a worthwhile undertaking. Do you know someone who is actively working on this problem?

[shadowgovt]

The research has been complicated in the US because so many of the cell lines pass through fetal tissue. But IIUC it's ongoing (and not so encumbered in other countries). Not to say all are intertwined with fetal cell research, only that it's one of the cheapest sources of stem cells and law has made using it complicated.

[RangerScience]

Do you (or a GP) know how I can donate already-extracted stem cells for this?

[lukan]

Many are, it is just not a trivial problem to create or copy living organs.

[MattGaiser]

It it meaningfully easier than growing livers for transplantation?

[thereisnospork]

Almost definitely: livers to implant need to be full sized and last years to decades. A test liver could be 1cm2, fit on a microscope slide, and have a two week shelf life.

Not to mention that there is a much higher bar, ethically, regulatorily, and economically for testing a synthetic implantable liver vs a 'liver-on-a-chip'.