After more than 20 years of research,a team of scientists are bioengineering penises in the lab which may soon be transplanted safely on to patients. It is an extraordinary medical endeavour that has implications for a wide range of disordersGathered around an enclosure at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina in 2008, Anthony Atala and his colleagues watched anxiously to see whether two rabbits would have sex. The suspense was short-lived: within a minute of being assign together, and the male mounted the female and successfully mated.
While it’s not clear what the rabbits made of the moment,for Atala it was definitely special. It was proof that a concept he’d been working on since 1992 – that penises could be grown in a laboratory and transplanted to humans – was theoretically possible. The male rabbit was one of 12 for which he had bioengineered a penis; all tried to mate; in eight there was proof of ejaculation; four went on to produce offspring.
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Source: theguardian.com