Imagine an injury that damaged your face or another body part that we cannot regenerate. Imagine if you were just born with the disfigurement. In the past, we would likely need to live with the disfigurement. Doctors have been improving the success rates of transplants, but you are likely to need drugs that will compromise your immune system. As we learned with covid-19, this was not a good thing as it left us more likely to have a life-threatening illness. A company in NY just reported that they successfully manufactured a replacement ear for a patient from their own cells. The benefit is that this can be a new way to help people repair a disfiguring injury. They also can get a transplant and since it was their own cells that were used, the risk of rejection is about zero. Check out the NY Times report on this patient's ear replacement. Doctors Transplant Ear of Human Cells, Made by 3-D Printer 3DBio Therapeutics, a biotech company in Queens, said it had for the first time used 3-D printing to make a body part with a patient’s own cells. By Roni Caryn Rabin June 2, 2022 A 20-year-old woman who was born with a small and misshapen right ear has received a 3-D printed ear implant made from her own cells, the manufacturer announced on Thursday. Independent experts said that the transplant, part of the first clinical trial of a successful medical application of this technology, was a stunning advance in the field of tissue engineering. The new ear was printed in a shape that precisely matched the woman’s left ear, according to 3DBio Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company based in Queens. The new ear, transplanted in March, will continue to regenerate cartilage tissue, giving it the look and feel of a natural ear, the company said. Read more