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And DARPA is way beyond this - their partners are in Phase II development of a technology that in Phase I caused blastema, the healing "buds" formed by salamanders, to occur in mammals.
CNN story.....
The Restorative Injury Repair program will achieve its goals by developing a comprehensive understanding of the wound environment, including cellular elements, matrix, inflammatory mediators, growth factors, nutrients, substrate utilization, biofilms, and ultimately processes of morphogenesis leading to anatomic and functional restoration. Phase I accomplishments include demonstrating formation of a blastema at a non-regenerating wound site in a mammal; Phase II efforts are focused on full restoration of a functional multi-tissue structure in a mammal.
Woman's persistence pays off in regenerated fingertip
(CNN) -- After running inside from a rainstorm one Friday evening last January, Deepa Kulkarni leaned against the doorway with her right hand to take off her boots. Then, in an effort to make sure the dog didn't get out, someone slammed the door hard, and it landed right on her pinky.
Kulkarni thought the door had only bruised her finger, but then she looked down and saw the tip of her pinky lying on the floor.
"I swooped down and picked it up before the dog got it," she remembers. "At first I was fine, but then I saw the blood -- there was so much blood -- and I felt woozy."
Her husband, Ajit, called an ambulance, and as soon as his parents arrived to take care of their two young children, Kulkarni retrieved her pinky tip from the freezer -- it had broken off just above the base of her fingernail -- and they headed from their home in Davis, California, to the emergency room.
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Eventually, Kulkarni made an appointment with Dr. Michael Peterson, an orthopedic surgeon in Davis. At first, Kulkarni says he was hesitant to try tissue regeneration since he hadn't done it before, but she gave him some research materials, and she says eventually he agreed to try it.
The therapy involved cleaning out the finger and removing scar tissue -- a process called debridement -- and then dipping her finger into MatriStem wound powder. After seven weeks of treatment, her fingertip grew back (as shown in the before and after photos above).
"Even now it's not perfect. It's shorter than the other pinky, but just by looking at it you can't tell it was an amputated finger," she says. "I'm able to do everything I could do before. I wash dishes. I cook," she says, adding that she's had physical therapy to decrease tingling in her finger caused by severed nerves.
Kulkarni still keeps her severed pinky tip in the freezer. She thawed it out so CNN could take a photograph of the pinky tip alongside her regenerated finger.
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(CNN) -- After running inside from a rainstorm one Friday evening last January, Deepa Kulkarni leaned against the doorway with her right hand to take off her boots. Then, in an effort to make sure the dog didn't get out, someone slammed the door hard, and it landed right on her pinky.
Kulkarni thought the door had only bruised her finger, but then she looked down and saw the tip of her pinky lying on the floor.
"I swooped down and picked it up before the dog got it," she remembers. "At first I was fine, but then I saw the blood -- there was so much blood -- and I felt woozy."
Her husband, Ajit, called an ambulance, and as soon as his parents arrived to take care of their two young children, Kulkarni retrieved her pinky tip from the freezer -- it had broken off just above the base of her fingernail -- and they headed from their home in Davis, California, to the emergency room.
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Eventually, Kulkarni made an appointment with Dr. Michael Peterson, an orthopedic surgeon in Davis. At first, Kulkarni says he was hesitant to try tissue regeneration since he hadn't done it before, but she gave him some research materials, and she says eventually he agreed to try it.
The therapy involved cleaning out the finger and removing scar tissue -- a process called debridement -- and then dipping her finger into MatriStem wound powder. After seven weeks of treatment, her fingertip grew back (as shown in the before and after photos above).
"Even now it's not perfect. It's shorter than the other pinky, but just by looking at it you can't tell it was an amputated finger," she says. "I'm able to do everything I could do before. I wash dishes. I cook," she says, adding that she's had physical therapy to decrease tingling in her finger caused by severed nerves.
Kulkarni still keeps her severed pinky tip in the freezer. She thawed it out so CNN could take a photograph of the pinky tip alongside her regenerated finger.
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